Bending Thick Material on the Press Brake

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When you work with heavy or abrasive materials such as stainless, hardened steel or parts that are not completely de-burred, you can wear out the shoulders of a die long before the entire die is worn out. Replacing the entire die is expensive, so Wilson Tool International offers two different solutions depending upon your needs.

At Wilson Tool International, we understand the challenges manufacturers face when bending heavy duty material and have a variety of press brake punch solutions to keep tool wear and changeovers to a minimum.

Shipyards, ironworkers, the transportation industry – all heavy hitters requiring big bends and powerful punches. Thick gauge material is hardly a walk in the park, with tooling left to the mercy of heavy, abrasive materials that often haven’t been de-burred. Applications like this see the radius of a tool wear at a much faster rate than the punch body, causing unnecessary waste. 

Wilson Tool International offers replaceable radius punches, allowing you to only replace the worn part of the tool with a simple replacement that doesn’t require wrenches. We also offer induction-hardening treatments for our punch tips and die shoulders, offering a bolstered-shield for your tooling.

Thick plate has inherent problems: it’s heavy, bulky and all-around labor intensive. There are a few measures operators can take when trying to improve thick plate throughput. This article discusses the benefits of forming on a press brake, adjustable v-dies, employing extraction systems and much more.

Thick material bending requires specific considerations: application specific tonnage calculations, precise adjustments to the punch or insert size, the right steel-bolstering coating for the job… all result in a streamlining effect in the shop. This article gets specific on what to consider when bending thick materials.