For consistent and accurate folding on a Press Brake, understanding the process of crowning, and how best to perform it is vital, generally when it comes to crowning there are three different ways to do it:
- Hand operated with an Allen key
- Hand operated using digital readouts
- Motorised control
The type of crowning we are going to look at in a little more detail in this article is hand operated crowning with an Allen key.
Before we do that however, it is worth revisiting what crowning actually is, and the type of problems it can solve when mastered.
When you make a fold in a piece of material, then the angle of that fold is likely to be the same at the ends, but what about along the entire length or the middle? How do we ensure that folded sheet remains accurate and consistent across the entirety of the fold?
This is where crowning comes in.
Crowning involves adjusting the wedges along the length of the workpiece you are folding, so for example; if your fold measures 90 degrees at both ends, but is 2 or 3 degrees less in the centre, then the wedges on your machine in that centre area can be tightened to bring the bottom bed up slightly in the affected area, to balance the slightly arched crown effect you might be encountering.
The obvious aim here is to obtain an accurate and straight fold, and the above example may differ from your own issues. It might be that you need to raise the central wedge more, and the ones on either side less to get the result you want, and experience (and careful use of a protractor) will tell you where to raise or lower and by how much. You will see the wedge going in as you tighten the bolt, or coming out as you loosen (if your fold is 2 or 3 degrees more for example), it’s all about careful measurement, identifying the specific wedges to adjust and getting that balance right for the best results.
Crowning can also be performed on the top distance piece by similar means, by loosening the 8mm pin and tapping the wedge towards the left which will have the effect of bringing down the distance piece slightly in the affected area, or tapping towards the right to raise the distance.
As always, our knowledge base expert Nigel shows us everything we need to know over on our YouTube channel with an excellent visual guide on How to Manually Adjust and Setup Crowning on a Press Brake. For any other questions or advice drop us a line
Published 4th July 2016