Punching and profiling machine is equipped with a fabrication centre for the automatic loading and unloading of sheets and a tooling system that extends the standard magazine by 45 stations.

The Pullmax 5000 punching and profiling machine is equipped with a fabrication centre (FC) for the automatic loading and unloading of sheets and an extended tooling system (ETM) that extends the standard magazine by 45 stations The Pullmax 5000 is a highly productive machine for sheet metal up to 6mm in thickness and is characterised by its speed, low noise, quick and easy set-up, an efficient tooling concept and an in-house developed control system The machine has a working area that allows 2500 x 1250mm sheet to be worked without re-positioning.

Thanks to the over travel of the axes (+/-25mm) corner notching and edge cutting can be undertaken using standard tools.

The positioning speed is 95/95m/min in the X- and Y-axes respectively.

This gives a real speed of the workpiece of up to 130m/min.

The acceleration is just as important as the top speed for production times.

The Pullmax 5000 accelerates at up to 17m/s2, which is close to twice the acceleration of gravity.

As standard the machine features the Pullmax patented tooling system that has made the Pullmax machine more flexible than other machines but especially turret punch presses.

A rotating punch head makes all tools indexable.

The tool changer has a 15-station magazine that holds tools all with a maximum size of 75mm diameter thus ensuring a high degree of flexibility and optimal use of the machine and the sheet format used.

In addition each cassette tool can hold eight different tools up to 20mm diameter.

This makes the possible number of tools available 120.

Tool changing times range from 0.2 to 4 seconds and this can boost productivity significantly.

To increase the tooling capacity even further the new Extended Tooling Magazine (ETM) can be added to a Pullmax punching machine as a modular extension.

The ETM provides an additional 45 or 90 tool stations, depending on the model chosen.

Together with the standard 15 tool stations on the machine the addition of the ETM increases the total number of available tool stations to either 59 or 104 (one tool station is the changing position and must be left empty).

To maximise the number of tools in the machine, all tool positions in the ETM can be loaded with the tooling cassette allowing 472 tools (58 x 8) or 832 tools (104 x 8) in the machine at one time.

The design of the Pullmax tool changer allows auto indexing of all tools, 360 degrees bi-directional.

The punch and die is transferred between the ETM and the machine by a robot, enabling tool changes whilst the machine is punching.

The ETM can also be loaded while the machine is in operation.

Costly machine downtime for tool changes is therefore eliminated completely.

When using the AUTO-Q software function of the machine control to load the multiple programs to be run, the machine is able to monitor which tools are to be utilised in the up-coming program.

The machine control will automatically pre-load them from the ETM into the machine's magazine, again eliminating machine downtime.

The ETM includes a function for tool life monitoring by recording the number of hits for each tool.

Two numbers are programmed, one for advanced warning, when the tool should be sharpened, and one for alarm, when the tool should not be reused without being sharpened.

Alternatively, the control will switch to a duplicate tool if one is loaded in the magazine.

This feature provides the operator with ample time between the time of advance warning and time of alarm to sharpen the tool.

The design of the ETM allows retrofits on all Pullmatic 126, 156, 5000 and 7000 punching machines.

By stacking the tools in three levels the ETM is compact, requiring a minimum of floor space.

The ETM will particularly benefit those machines that are equipped with automatic material handling systems, such as the machine on show.

The ETM provides the ability to run the machine unmanned even with a very flexible and diverse workload.

The C500 control system has been specifically designed for sheet fabrication and features a 32 bit multiprocessor and a touch screen for user-friendly interfacing to the machine.

The screen has fast colour graphics allows the operator to simulate and check programs as well as giving programming support, while simultaneously running another job on the machine.

The graphic display also shows which parts of the plate have been worked, is being punched and will be punched, whilst it is being run on the machine. 

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