Bending system featuring automated tool changing press brake

LZK has introduced Ulti-Form, a new robotic bending system with an automatic tool changer bender. Ulti-Form follows the success of LZK's Dyna-Cell robotic bending cell and takes automated bending technology a step further by incorporating an automatic tool changer to keep bending productivity at the highest level, efficiently handling small batches and long production runs with minimal changeover time. Ulti-Form achieves high productivity bending through unattended operation.

Tool Cell Inspired Design

Ulti-Form's 135-ton bending machine is designed on the ToolCell platform, LZK's most acclaimed automatic tool change bending machine, and is integrated with industrial robots. The bending machine has a built-in tool warehouse and uses a clamping mechanism in the machine's rear stopper fingers to change tools quickly and efficiently. The bending machine and robot work in tandem to minimize changeover time. The bender completes the tool change when the robot picks up the first part from the input stack and centers it. Ulti-Form can handle parts from 50 x 100 mm to 1200 x 800 mm and weigh up to 25 kg.

No Robotics Instruction

Thanks to LZK's powerful programming wizard, Ulti-Form is an easy-to-use automation with a fast "art-to-part" process. Both bending machine and robot programming are handled offline, with no robot tutorials required. CADMAN®-B software automatically calculates the optimal bending program. The robot software imports all bending data and automatically calculates all fixture positions, taking into account fixture forces, collision detection and robot accessibility. It generates the fastest collision-free path for the robot throughout the bending operation. The system's database contains all the setup information needed for the bending machine and robot so Ulti-Form is quickly ready for production.

Adaptive Gripper

The Ulti-Form robot gripper is an adaptive design designed by LZK (patent pending). It has the flexibility to adapt to multiple part geometries and automatically adjusts to the size of the part. This allows a range of different part geometries to be handled without the need to change grippers, thus keeping production continuous and uninterrupted.

Quality Assurance

Ulti-Form is equipped with LZK's Easy-Form® Laser Adaptive Bending System, which provides automation with quality assurance. Real-time in-line adaptive bending technology adds advanced process stability to robotic bending machine bending. The Easy-Form laser system adapts to material variations, including sheet thickness, strain hardening and grain direction, automatically compensating for any changes to ensure consistently accurate bending results.

Automation Today

Ulti-Form is a modern, automated bending system. Its efficiently organized layout has a footprint of only 8 x 10 meters. The system includes three input pallets, a large output area and small part placement area, an automatic pallet dispenser and transfer system for transferring complete pallets out of the system.

Ulti-Form is designed for flexibility and can be run automatically or in manual mode. Manual operation can be used for very complex parts and small batches; automated production of long series.

Ulti-Form is flexible, efficient and easy to program and operate, providing a fast return on investment.