Small Bending Part III

In our 3rd part of our Robotic Brake series we are going to take a closer look at tooling.

We have standardized several different tooling sections so we are not swapping tools in and out which eliminates one possible source of error in bending accuracy.

You can see both standard Wilson Tooling and custom 3D printed tools using our incredible Markforged printers. The accuracy and repeatability are unmatched compared to our conventional brakes. The part edge does not touch a back-gauge so there is less error in positioning.

The robot is putting a part into the punch and die set for bending. The Wilson tooling is made at an angle that bending past 90 degrees is possible without changing to “stamping” in the tools.

The drawing says 0.655” and it measures 0.6555”!! This may be a really good part for the picture but we haven’t seen a variance of more than 0.005 and less than 0.25 degrees between parts. On a side note, this is why we don’t use any paper drawings in the shop any more :)

An example of an old steel die (with white protecting tape applied) for a specialty aluminum clip that we produce. This die would last 5000 parts before having to be re-machined into the proper size.

The aluminum clip still in the 3D printed tool set. Not only does this last longer than the steel die (about 10,000 parts) but it will not scratch as much.