The AMADA VPSS 3i BEND Solution Pack automatically supplies the perfect sequence of bends for any component. This makes production particularly fast and reliable – and allows users such as Natus GmbH & Co. KG in Trier to manufacture a wide variety of product variants even in small batch sizes.
Intelligent software solutions such as AMADA’s VPSS 3i virtual prototyping capability are playing an ever more important role in the field of sheet metal processing . They provide a fast, flexible response to the
growing number of variants and shrinking batch sizes. When used in combination with AMADA’s high-performance systems, they allow users to become significantly more competitive. This also applies to Natus GmbH & Co. KG in Trier, a company whose manufacturing portfolio includes low-voltage and medium-voltage switchgear. Since 2017, the company has been using an AMADA HG-1003ATC press brake coupled with the AMADA VPSS 3i BEND Solution Pack to manufacture the sheet metal parts needed for the cell structures and racks. “At the AMADA HG-1003ATC, we manufacture approximately 300-400 different sheet metal parts in thicknesses of up to 3 mm,” explains Hermann Theis, Deputy Head of Manufacturing at the Natus sheet metal processing center. “This system, with its automatic tool changer, is ideal for our many short runs of only ten parts or less.”
AMADA VPSS 3i BEND Solution Pack for an AMADA HG-1003ATC press brake.
Automatic bending sequence
The AMADA VPSS 3i BEND Solution Pack makes a vital contribution to this high level of efficiency. “We upload the CAD design engineering drawing as a Step file (3D model) and enter the characteristic values for the order, such as the type of material,” says Theis. “The software’s automatic mode is then particularly valuable for us. This works out the bending sequence fully automatically in just a few seconds, suggests the setup processes and configures the system accordingly. As a result, we can work quickly, reliably and without conflicts.” He adds that the process can be automated even further by using AMADA SheetWorks. “All the user then has to do is save the design engineering data in the relevant folder,” explains Lukas Pollok, Software Application Engineer at AMADA. “From this, the software itself generates a virtual metal part, processes it and then creates the required bending program using VPSS 3i BEND.”
Design engineering solution
At Natus GmbH & Co. KG, approximately 85 percent of all the required parts are programmed quickly and easily using AMADA VPSS 3i BEND and, to date, some 6,000 component programs and the corresponding variants have been created. All the parts that the company has ever manufactured are stored in the system and can be reproduced with absolute fidelity at any time thanks to the barcode on the work plan (routing card). “The VPSS 3i Bend program runs extremely well and we very much like working with it, in particular in automatic mode,” is how Theis sums things up. “In this way, we are able to solve practically all our design engineering challenges quickly and efficiently.”
Images: Natus GmbH & Co. KG
