Punch press

Generally the tool is placed slightly above the bottom bed plate by providing two parallel blocks accurately ground to the same size.

Turret type punch press machines have a table or bed with brushes or rollers to allow the sheet metal workpiece to traverse with low friction.

The tonnage needed to cut and form the material is well known, so sizing tooling for a specific job is a fairly straightforward task.

To start a cycle, the CNC controller commands the drives to move the table along the X and the Y axis to a desired position.

(The terms BDC and TDC go back to older presses with pneumatic or hydraulic clutches.

The piece of material (slug) cut from the workpiece is ejected through the die and bolster plate and collected in a scrap container.

In the 19th century, the flywheels were powered by leather drive belts attached to line shafting, which in turn ran to a steam plant.

Full revolution clutch presses are known to be dangerous and outlawed in many countries unless the pinch point is fully guarded.

This is because the braking mechanism depends on a set of raised keys or "dogs" to fall into matching slots to stop the ram.

A full revolution clutch can only bring the ram to a stop at the same location - top dead center.

Modern part revolution clutch and brake units are normally combined units that operate in a fail safe mode, a dual air safety valve engages clutch and starts slide motion and brake is applied by springs.

A servo drive press system has no complex hydraulics or oil-cooling chillers, thus reducing maintenance and repair costs.

A turret press can be equipped with advanced technology that stores and reuses energy generated during ram deceleration, providing extended electrical power savings.