3D-Printed Press-Brake Tooling Cuts Costs

This steel-reinforced press-brake punch and die, produced via 3D printing, reportedly reduced costs by 86 percent and lead time by 88 percent as compared to traditional machining.

Centerline Engineered Solutions, a Greenwood, SC, contract engineering and fabrication business, has deep roots, tracing back to 1918 when Alfred Proctor Aldrich founded Aldrich Machine Works. In 2004, the company merged with Swofford Engineering, and Centerline was born, bringing to bear a formidable array of machining, laser-cutting and bending capabilities to design, develop and deliver parts, as well as repair machinery.

Chances are that Aldrich did not foresee the advent of CNC machining and laser cutting, and most likely he would not know what to make of a newer Centerline capability, 3D printing. The fact is, businesses do not last for a century by doing the same old thing. As technology has presented itself as a viable option to forward the core business and offer success in new areas, Centerline has adopted and adapted.

Machining Time and Costs Drove Search

Today, the company offers 3D-printing consulting, designing and manufacturing services for customer parts, tooling and prototypes, using metal and nonmetal base materials. The transformation began a few years back when Centerline management realized that time spent machining tooling and fixtures could be better spent on end parts, and CEO Phil Vickery explored alternatives, including additive manufacturing (AM). Centerline had to turn down projects simply because customers’ budgets could not cover the tool and fixturing costs required to make the parts. On low-volume parts particularly, recalls Vickery, the company struggled to find affordable tooling solutions. This resulted in money lost for Centerline, and customers began looking elsewhere for suppliers.

“It gets more costly each and every time a part touches another person and another operation,” Vickery explains, noting that costs escalate rapidly on parts requiring multiple machining operations.

With cost and lead-time savings enabled by 3D printing, Centerline Engineered Solutions was able to meet customer requirements for production of a limited-run part via development and printing of a press-brake tool. Employing the technology, Centerline has printed everything from fixtures for inspection, welding and assembly to custom tooling and end-use parts shipped out to larger clients.

Vickery’s technology search led the company to purchase a Markforged Mark Two desktop printer, capable of 3D printing with plastics, and also with continuous carbon-fiber reinforcement. Within 2 hr. of the printer’s arrival, “I was printing things,” recalls Vickery. “It was a very easy startup from my standpoint.”

Press-Brake Tools Reveal AM Benefits

Recent work on a press-brake tool illustrates the printer’s positive impact. A customer had asked Centerline engineers to bend and form a custom sheetmetal part. Because the customer needed only two parts, the engineers expected tooling costs to exceed what the customer was willing to pay.

“To make a special die for a press brake is very expensive—we’re talking $1000 to $2000,” Vickery says.