Newbies have little working experience in the sheet metal industry. They don't know much about processing characteristics of sheet metal, often struggle with CNC punching machine programming. There will be some minor problems encountered during the process. These will lead to the existence of some quality problems in production and processing, affect the production efficiency and progress. In serious cases, it causes the scrapping of processed workpieces. Therefore, the accumulation of experience is the prerequisites for solving problems encountered in daily job.

Here are some tips to help you during programming on punching machine.

1. When the same workpiece needs to be processed by the mold multiple times, pay attention to whether the processing technology is properly programmed. The same type of processing should be in the same programming as much as possible to avoid holes location shifting and inconsistent burr surface of workpieces with the same type of process characteristics.

2. When arrange the CNC tool, follow the general principles of: small first and then large, round first and then special molds. In the same program, try to select as few tools as possible. The width of the first tool should be greater than the plate thickness. Choose a knife as large as possible to ensure that the total length of the cutting edge is not less than 1.5 times the length of the selected tool. This helps improve production efficiency and extend the service life of the mold.

3. When arranging tool for internal rectangular holes or square holes, be careful to avoid single-cutting. When using an SQ knife, if it's unreasonable due to process limitations, you can use an OB knife or RE knife to punch a pair of sides of a rounded or right-angled rectangular hole respectively. Then use a suitable tool to punch the remaining part in the middle. Carry out punching. At this time, you must pay attention to punching the edges first and then punching the middle. You can reduce the number of contacts and reduce the wear by choosing the right tool.

4. Pay attention to retaining material on the workpiece, and choose it appropriately according to the thickness of the material and the size of the workpiece. Generally, there are four connection points of 0.2-0.3mm. When you have special knives or chamfers, be sure to increase the material left, usually 0.3-0.4mm. Increasing the connection points is also OK.

5. When selecting tools, the width should be greater than the thickness of the material, and the center distance between adjacent knives for continuous punching should be greater than half the tool length. When the same straight edge needs to be cut into sections for processing, be careful to use the same type of cutter to avoid uneven trimming and steps due to the difference in the clearance between the upper and lower dies of the cutter.

6. Tools with fixed tool positions in the tool table should not be modified as much as possible. Edit them only when necessary. When tools with fixed tool positions need to be installed at different angles, they should be edited in the original tool position. There is no need to reinstall the tool in an empty position. When arranging knives, you must pay attention to the number of knives. Only one set of knives must not be installed at several knife positions at different angles in the same program.

7. When processing countersink, the bowl-shaped knife should be processed immediately after pre-punching to ensure concentricity. The bowl-shaped knife can cause extrusion and deformation of the sheet during processing. Pay attention to placing the bowl-shaped knife in front of other tools in the processing monitoring area. When processing larger circles or arcs and single punching without the optional tool, use a smaller square tool for nibbling. Pay attention to manual adjustment to set the appropriate spacing.

8. When mass-producing the whole sheet of material for typesetting (nesting processing), most of them use zero-leave material and total edge trimming. When producing in small quantities, priority should be given to filling the Y direction.

9. When there is an upward forming tool among the special tools, that is, when the lower mold is a punch, other tools should be avoided around the tool position. Pay attention to the use of unusual special tools: rib cutting tools. When arranging the tools, use the line punching command to arrange the tools. Use manual setting of the gap. Set the gap parameter to a certain proportion value.

At the same time, the lower mold of the tool is a punch, it is higher than other tools. There are many cutting tools, which may cause the sheet metal to collide with them during processing and cause scratches. Therefore, the reinforcing ribs are processed at the end or processed separately in a separate program.

When selecting special tools, attention should be paid to the processing direction. Among the existing special forming tools, only tooth extraction and center punching can be processed in both upward and downward directions. Among them, countersinks, convex hulls, and crimping lines can be processed downward. Reinforcement ribs, shutters and card slots can only be formed upward.

These are some tips for programming and process setting, not all of them. You must analyze them based on the actual situations encountered during the work process. Find the best answer from them.