A prominent manufacturer of tipper bodies, the Thompsons Group, has taken delivery of a Trumpf TruBend 8600-80 press brake at its Blackburn facility. The machine, which is the largest Trumpf bending machine in the UK, is being used to form tipper side panels from 4 mm thick Hardox.

“Due to order volumes rising there is a constant need to keep pace with production and invest in our future,” explains director Neil Griffin. “We recently installed a robotic welding cell, which shifted the bottleneck to bending. In addition, even though our existing press brake offers a capacity of 400 tonnes, we needed more to help us process 4 mm thick Hardox, which is a tough, wear-resistant steel with a hardness of 450 HB.”
Three potential bending machine suppliers were scrutinised, but it was Trumpf that impressed the most. The TruBend 8600-80 offers a large open height, throat depth and 600 tonne press force. Trumpf customised the machine with an additional 8 m bending length option.
“After profiling, the side panels of the tipper bodies each require up to 12 bends, which is where the tonnage of the TruBend 8600-80 really comes into its own,” says Griffin. “Having capability of this type in-house is a real market advantage as we don’t have to rely on subcontractors, and thus avoid all the associated costs and lead-time issues that strategy brings. Moreover, all Thompsons’ tipper bodies are manufactured specifically for each customer.”
Around 25 Hardox tipper bodies are produced at Thompsons on a weekly basis, which means 50 sides to bend, plus floors and tailgates. The TruBend 8600-80 is currently working a single day shift, but a night shift may soon be required to keep up with demand.
For further information www.uk.trumpf.com

Bystronic has introduced a newly developed range of press brakes that can be customised to suit a user’s requirements in terms of process speed and flexibility. Available in the UK through the Swiss manufacturer’s Coventry subsidiary, the modular Xpert Pro series comprises three models, plus a variety of optional extras.

First up is the Classic Edition, which is intended for prototype manufacture and job shops producing small batch sizes. Next is the Performance Edition for medium-sized companies that want to produce parts in larger series, while the third model, the Dynamic Edition, is suitable for companies needing even more speed to handle batch sizes of 1000 parts or more. Bystronic says the machines will be among the fastest on the market, with bend speeds up to 20 mm/sec.
Capacity ranges from 100 to 320 tons, enabling sheet up to 15 mm thick to be processed, while bending length is either 3 or 4 m. Companies that require even more flexibility can connect two machines together to bend longer parts.
Due to the variety of configuration options, application possibilities are extensive and an Xpert Pro can be flexibly adapted to new requirements through straightforward retrofitting of optional modules.
Fabricators that have already invested money in bending tools want to reuse them when they purchase a new press brake, but this is not usually possible when changing supplier as there are almost a dozen different tool systems on the market that are incompatible with each other. However, this problem has
been solved by the Xpert Pro range as the machines have been designed so that tool systems from other suppliers
can be used.
For further information www.bystronic.co.uk