The new V 4000 Press Brake Category 4 camera sensor offers both maximum safety at work and maximum optimisation of folding processes. This has been made possible by programming a safety field whose evaluation can do more than just monitor a light path.

>> Conventional systems for safeguarding the hazardous closing movement on sinking brake presses consist of simple optoelectronic sensors and receivers and are mounted on the top clamping bar and thus move with it. While they detect any hazardous reaching into the protective field, they have serious disadvantages for machine productivity.

The new V 4000 Press Brake corresponds to Category 4 in compliance with
EN 954-1 and SIL 3 according to EN 61508 – and thus offers maximum safety. Machine vision, i.e. image processing, is the technological approach upon which this electrosensitive protective equipment is based. A two-dimensional safety field, coordinated with the particular bending process, is active during the downward motion of the die. The height of this field decreases continuously as the bending die, on which the V 4000 Press Brake is installed, approaches the die plate. This offers a variety of advantages: thick sheet metal, bent metal shapes, and thin plate with side walls are subject to differing protection modes – according to the various bending tasks: “Standard” for simple one-dimensional bending, “Box” for bending multi-dimensional objects such as boxes, and “Limit stop” to take into account limit stops tight on the object to be bent. The system is exceptionally easy to integrate into the press constructor’s machine control system. In this way the safety equipment can be switched to the optimum protective mode via selection of the bending program. The machine can thus activate the different protection modes appropriate for the bending techniques, one after another and as often as required, for the same object, e.g. first “Standard”, then “Box” for a high box side, and finally “Limit stop” for the low part of a side.

The features and opportunities of the V 4000 Press Brake provide a very important advantage for the actual bending process. Unlike with conventional systems, the downward movement of the press bar must no longer be stopped just before folding, with a new approach then being made using a foot switch. The savings in cycle time that this brings about increase machine capacity – and thus economic efficiency.

The intelligent image processing of the V 4000 Press Brake also sets new standards regarding commissioning and availability. Vibrations – typical for presses – do not trigger any system response because the entire camera field, within which the safety-monitored area is programmed, is intelligently evaluated. The monitored area of the safe camera sensor tracks even small changes in alignment. This immunity to any misalignment also makes adjustment during first commissioning, and after a change of tools, simpler and quicker than with other “passenger” systems. The very simple integration in existing control systems is also remarkable, as the V 4000 Press Brake operates with the signals that are anyway used on press brakes.

The V 4000 Press Brake – press protection that offer users and integrators a real technological lead.