Metal Bending

Minifaber has more than a decade of experience in bending steel, aluminum, copper, and other metals for a variety of industries: from electromechanical to medical and kitchen robotics such as ice cream machines. Metal bending is a cold working process that makes bends in sheet metal as required by the customer's drawing. This is how it is actually done in Minifaber. 
Metal bending requires the use of a bending or paneling machine, and can produce panels or bent sheets from flat semi-finished products. 
Minifaber owns as many as seven brake presses and one paneling machine. These are technologically advanced, state-of-the-art, programmable CNC machines that can bend the following with the highest precision:

• Aluminum and its alloys
• Stainless steel
• Ferrous materials
• Copper and its alloys.

The press brake

Bending a metal with a press brake is one of the most precise, simple and inexpensive ways to make prototypes and batches, even in very small runs: a blade pushes the sheet metal into a V-die, which forms the bend in the part. 

There are three different types of metal bending:

Air bending - the sheet metal is placed on two supports and deformed by the punch, which does not reach the bottom of the V-die; this manages the natural springback of the material

Coining - as in air bending, the sheet metal is placed on two supports, but in this case the punch, or blade, reaches the bottom of the V-die; in this case the bend angle is repeatable on all parts produced 

Hemming - this serves to eliminate sharp edges on the part by creating a radiused double thickness on the sheet metal. 

The use of programmable brake presses makes it possible to manage the inevitable springback after bending, the magnitude of which depends on the nature of the metal, its hardness and its elasticity.

The paneling machine

Bending metal using a paneling machine is ideal for parts that need to be bent on all four corners, with complex bends that differ from each other. 

In this case, the sheet metal is placed on a worktable, and the blank holder on the machine clamps it while a tool bends it. 

Minifaber's metal bending service starts with a thorough analysis of the project together with the customer. Once we understand the specific requirements and final application of the part, we proceed with sheet metal bending, outlining the best strategy to achieve a flawless result. This also involves identifying the most suitable machine to achieve the objective.

The sectors we work for

We offer a metal bending service for a wide variety of sectors, including:

• Electromechanical

• Home appliances and kitchen robotics

• Vending

• Professional lighting

• Medical 

• EV charger

• Gas distribution. 

Metal bending and more

Metal bending is just one of the services we provide at Minifaber. In fact, since 1960, we have been specializing in cold metalworking, such as:

• Shearing

• Drawing

• Sheet metal hydroforming

• Punching

• making step die and transfer mold parts

• 2D and 3D laser cutting

• welding: Laser-MIG/MAG-CMT-TIG-Resistance-Capacitor Discharge

• Metal component assembly

• Surface coatings and heat treatments of the metal parts we fabricate.