Understanding Mechanical Safety Concerns

Air Bending: What This Sheet Metal Fabrication Technique Can Do For Your Metal Product Needs

Currently, in sheet metal fabrication, there is a process known as "air bending," which requires special machines that press metal with a pneumatic air press in order to create the unique shapes that are needed for your fabricated items, including three-dimensional forms. This air bending and pressing techniques also offer a variety of applications for your metal products needs. Here is what it can do for your metal grate, slotted ventilation shaft products, and three-dimensional forms.

The Air Bending Press Brake

To begin with, the air bending press brake has an onboard, computerized control center. When you place your order for grates and vents, the exact depths and angles needed to make one set of products are programmed into this machine. An example of this is programming the machine to press a piece of sheet metal into forty-five-degree angles, each angle of metal piggy-backing on the next. The machine also has a built-in press cutter/punch that can cut the openings underneath each of these angles to create the vent openings. The whole process is simultaneously managed via the control center of the air bending press brake. When you need a different but similarly-manufactured product, the sheet metal company reprograms the air bending press brake to create the new set of products.

Air Bending Three-Dimensional Forms

Additionally, if you need three-dimensional forms constructed, the air bending press brake moves and forms right angles until you get square and rectangular forms. The press brake can create any size three-dimensional form, too, so if you need an industrial ventilation shaft or if you just need the basic form for a new series of galvanized steel garbage cans, the air bending process can manage all of the above. More complex forms, such as cylinders, are crafted using machines other than an "air bender."

Why You Would Want the Sheet Metal Company to Use This Technique

Air bending requires less tonnage in the pressing and die-cutting processes, ensuring that even lightweight metals are not damaged as they are bent into shape. There is also less room for human error because the machine is programmed with specific instructions for each product or set of products made. With fewer faulty products produced, you save money on the production processes and gain money during the sales process. Perfectly shaped and formed products also tend to resist destruction and/or deconstruction by other forces, qualities which make them very valuable.


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