Task

Provision of a profile bending process that realises the different profiles of the conveyor tracks with repeat accuracy.
Development time until zero series: 12 weeks
Commissioning and production support: 5 days

Solution

Development of a modified three-roll bending process on PBT three-roll bending technology. Documented prototyping phase up to production-ready zero series.
Turnkey set-up of the PBT "bending centre".

Advantage

Construction of an effective, very flexible bending centre that can bend product-specific profiles with short throughput times.

Solution for bending complex profiles in the standard and individual radii

Material flow of different transport goods in production and storage place multi-layered demands on the conveying medium. In factory automation, conveyor systems (so-called skid systems) are required that transport, store and position workpieces both horizontally and vertically. Whether simple circulation systems or complex production systems with, for example, inclines and declines, deflections, conveyor lines on several levels, synchronisations or spiral accumulators: With Bosch Rexroth AG conveyor systems, users can choose the optimum solution for transporting, manufacturing, assembling and testing their products from a range of different technologies. A central element of the conveyor systems from Bosch Rexroth AG are aluminium profiles, which are used as transport guides and supports for the construction of the conveyor sections.

Bosch Rexroth AG commissioned the bending specialists at PBT Germany GmbH to find a more efficient solution for bending these complex profiles in the system standard radii and in radii according to individual customer specifications. The specification for PBT Germany was to implement a manufacturing process that bends complex aluminium profiles that meet the following conditions: different, successive radii, forming in every spatial axis, results precisely measurable, repeatable, adherence to the original geometry of the profile cross-section at every point along the bending path.

The PBT Germany bending specialists, formerly INDUMASCH GmbH, now a subsidiary of the Swiss PBT Profilbiegetechnik AG, developed the production process in their test workshop using three-roll profile bending technology. The development related to the bending machine, corresponding tools, the actual bending process and, in terms of design and materials, the profile itself. As a result, the aluminium profile was technically modified, the bending process was optimised on the tool and machine side up to the production-ready zero series, so that overall a turnkey application was delivered.

The solution convinced Bosch Rexroth AG. Since the introduction of the PBT solution, two more machines have been used to expand the German production capacities. A fourth machine is in use for Bosch Rexroth in the USA.

PBT Germany managing director Peter Sting: "We are a provider of solutions for bending tasks that were previously impossible or difficult to solve, because, as this order also shows: only those who solve problems deliver."

Manufacturing advantage through PBT

Bosch Rexroth AG

Kundenbranche:

Logistikksysteme, Skid-Fördertechnik

Indumasch-Geschäftsbereich:

Profilbiegetechnik

Bosch Rexroth AG:

Die Bosch Rexroth AG, eine hundertprozentige Tochter der Robert Bosch GmbH, setzte im Jahr 2002 mit circa 25.500 Mitarbeitern 3,62 Milliarden Euro um. Als The Drive & Control Company bietet Bosch Rexroth hochwertige Komponenten, Systeme und ein breites Dienstleistungsprogramm für die Industrie- und Fabrikautomation sowie für mobile Anwendungen.