Page 43 - Metalorming Magazine January/February 2023

2022
The show’s over, but the latest equipment on display is hitting shop floors. Here’s some of what we saw, with more coming in future issues and at www.metalformingmagazine.com.
BY BRAD KUVIN, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, and LOUIS A. KREN, SENIOR EDITOR
Nearly 30,000 metal forming and Also new and on display
along with the press brake: the Amada AMNC 4i control, which provides operator face recognition, as well as voice- command functionality. Amada America: www.amada.com/america
ABB, Lincoln Electric Team for Cobot GMAW Cell
ABB and Lincoln Electric offered live demos of a new collabo- rative-robot (cobot) gas-metal-arc- welding cell, featuring an ABB GoFa CRB 15000 cobot and the Lincoln Elec- tric Power Wave R450 welding package. The package includes proprietary pro- gramming software that greatly eases cell programming and the setting of welding parameters, according to ABB
officials.
The cell includes a user-friendly
interface for simplified programming, with built-in welding libraries where users only need to enter the material type and material thickness, and move the robot to the beginning and end of the weld. All welding parameters and cobot travel speed then are set, and with the push of a button, the cobot is ready to weld. Learning to operate this welding package typically takes less than 1 hr., according to company offi- cials, which enables a user to weld on
fabricating professionals—from
70 countries and all 50 states— descended upon the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta this past November, taking in groundbreaking innovations, inspiring keynote presen- tations and solution-based education sessions. Attendee numbers represent an increase of 22.6 percent over the 2021 event, spreading out through 610,000-plus sq. ft. of exhibit space that featured nearly 1200 exhibitors. In fact, the show floor measured 19.5- percent larger than in 2021 and wel- comed 30-percent more exhibitors. Eight technology pavilions covered four halls: METALFORM, 3D/Additive Man- ufacturing, Forming & Fabricating, Fin- ishing, Tube/Pipe, Robotics and Indus- trial Automation, Welding and Welding Automation.
Read on for some of the technology spied by the editors of MetalForming, an official publication of FABTECH and official publication of event partner Precision Metalforming Association. And, see our roundup of laser cutting technology presented at FABTECH, beginning on page 30.
Be sure to save September 11-14 on your calendar for FABTECH 2023 at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL. Regis- tration is expected to open in the spring of 2023. Visit www.fabtechexpo.com for updates.
Electric Drive and Tool Changer Highlight New Amada EGB 6020 ATCe Press Brake
Amada America used its prominent FABTECH stage to introduce, among other equipment, the EGB 6020 ATCe electric press brake (66.9 in. between frames, bend force to 60 tons, and with a 10-in. stroke), promising to reduce power consumption while providing automated tool setup and highly repeatable bend-angle accuracy. As noted during a press conference on the show floor, the high-speed machine best-suits processing of high-mix, low- volume parts, and even boasts features to make it simple to set up and run by inexperienced operators—notably, an HMI tablet PC installed on the press- brake ram and a backgauge camera connected to the tablet to provide con- venient process monitoring for the operator.
40 MetalForming/January/February 2023
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