Prevent damage and wear

Smaller batch series are also being produced more often, which means tools are installed and removed with greater regularity. This causes wear, damage, contamination and corrosion on stainless steel plates and tool holders. This results in products being rejected! Here are five ways to prevent this:

1. Timely replacement of tools

Naturally, you can replace your tools early, which will stop worn out tools having a negative impact on bending results. However, it is expensive to regularly replace tools! It is a lot more efficient to extend the life-span of the tools.

2. Grinding tools

Greater accuracy in the bending process can be temporarily achieved by grinding your tools (to remove signs of wear and tear). The downside of this approach is that it is extremely labor-intensive, and is always accompanied by additional trailing costs. Regular grinding also reduces tool interchangeability, which means it becomes difficult to order tools with exactly the same properties. 

3. Nitrating tools

Nitrating can be used to harden the complete surface of tools. However, the durable layer is very thin, which means compression from burring, sloping edges and bulb plate cannot be prevented. Tools also lose their rigidity/strength due to notching (because the whole tool has not been hardened), which results in lower loadability and a limited life-span.

4. Deep hardening tools

Tools are hardened on the bending radii as well as contact surfaces. A hardening depth of 4 mm makes sure the material's forces are well distributed and thus prevents compression. Damage to certain bending zones is now a thing of the past thanks to the 56-60HRc. Tools retain their rigidity/strength due to local hardening. 

WILA's advice

Make sure tools are CNC-Deephardened^®. This means accurate bending results can be guaranteed for a long period of time, even under extreme loads. Rejected products thus become a thing of the past. This helps to significantly improve productivity, which means investments are quickly recuperated.

Would you like to know more about CNC-Deephardening^®? 

WILA’s Premium Tools Holders and tools are CNC-Deephardened^® so the aforementioned problems can be avoided. Would you like to know which Tool Holders and tools best suit your application? Then please contact us.