BENDING AND FOLDING
Penn Elcom ’ s new P4lean panel bender arrived in February 2021 . A meeting pod designed and manufactured by Penn Elcom .
propeller aircraft with a jet . And yet , when I learnt the price range , I was pleasantly surprised . I subsequently sent three products to Salvagnini that were proving difficult to fold using our press brakes . One of these products – a cabinet corner post – was about 2m in length , 2.5mm thick and had 8-10 folds . It necessitated three lifts on a press brake , so our existing cycle time was around 15 minutes and we had quite a high reject rate .”
The trials showed that a Salvagnini panel bender could fold these products in just 50 seconds , prompting Penn Elcom to invest in its first machine .
“ That was in 2017 , and we now have four Salvagnini LEAN-series panel benders at Hastings , as well as one in China ,” said Willems .
Flexible control
The Hastings site houses a Salvagnini P1 , ( Mini Panel Bender with a bend length of 1,250mm ) and three P4lean automatic panel benders . The latest P4lean arrived in February 2021 . Of the ten press brakes owned by the company before the panel bender era , only three now remain on-site .
“ Finding the skilled operators to run pressbrakes is not easy , so the Salvagnini machines have also helped in that regard ,” confirmed Roger Willems . “ All our panel benders run 24 / 7 , with typically one operator looking after two machines . Their reliability and repeatability has been outstanding from the start – we have zero rejects – and I can see us adding more in the future .”
“ Our P4lean panel bender combines productivity with its automatic bending and handling cycle . Process flexibility is inherent with universal bending tools that automatically adapt to the panel geometry in-cycle , without machine downtime or manual re-tooling . With its advanced cycles , a machine such as the P4lean completes an average of 17 bends per minute ,” Italian manufacturer , Salvagnini , told ISMR .
At Penn Elcom , some of the Salvagnini machines feature options that boost capability even further . The CUT option , for example , enables the automatic cutting of different profile lengths , materials , thicknesses and shapes from a single blank , making separation cuts after each sequence of bends .
The company has also taken a special V-score option , which can help deliver a tighter outside radius , as well as a special narrow blank-holder for the P-tool that can help process smaller parts deemed not possible on panel benders .
Samples and prototypes
Roger Willems suggests that if he had remained with press brake technology , his current lead times for cabinets would be as high as 16-20 weeks , with little potential to produce samples .
Samples and prototypes are an important part of business at Penn Elcom as the company is constantly developing new products to help spur further growth . A good example is DoorJammer , a portable door security device . Ever laid awake at night in a hotel room worrying about security ? DoorJammer is one solution . Roger Willems presented the device on the hit BBC television programme Dragons ’ Den in 2017 . DoorJammer is now a fully incorporated company within the Penn Elcom Group .
Another example is the PBX1 parcel box , offering a secure solution to unattended parcel delivery .
“ The PBX1 is already selling in good numbers but if , as expected , it starts selling in really high volumes , we would sink without the Salvagnini panel benders ,” explained Willems . “ We ’ ve learned to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves , and the Salvagnini machines allow us to do that . You can ’ t be a pioneer in industry if you don ’ t take risks .” n
A CPU holder .
. penn-elcom . com
Example products from Penn Elcom ’ s 19-inch racking solutions ’ range .
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