Mechanization of Hand Press Brake

Abstract

A press brake, also known as a brake press, is a machine tool for bending mostly sheet metal. It forms predetermined bends by clamping the work piece between a matching punch and die. It is essential tool for any machine shop. There was hand press brake in our workshop which was operated manually. Two persons were required to operate the power screws to lower the knife edge. We have taken a task of reducing the man power and human effort required to operate the press at lowest possible cost. We have used hydraulic mechanism for achieve our main goal to reduce human effort and the cost. For this we used bottle jack, C-channel, springs, hooks, solid rings & rods. Pressure is generated by bottle jack with handle, bottle jack moves down because the top of the ram of bottle jack is restricted by c-channel and bottom of the bottle jack is fixed on the top of knife edge. So, the knife edge moves down, which press the sheet. This concept was developed to reduce the man power at lowest possible cost. This entire mechanization is done with cost of only Rs. 5500.