HAS THE PRESS BRAKE HAD ITS DAY?

The two most important developments which have contributed to improved output in the sheet-metal shop in recent years have been the NC turret press and the application of numerical control to the press brake. Now, however, there are signs that an increasing imbalance between the production rates possible with these two is creating problems for the high-volume manufacturer who has made the modern high-speed turret press the centre of his metal-forming operations. Out of this situation must come a new generation of machines to replace the press brake as a means of folding the already pierced and blanked products of the turret press. The decade of the sheet metalworking centre has begun.