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Setting press brake in place questions

Tim S

Plastic
Joined
Mar 31, 2010
Location
Kernersville NC
We recently acquired a 14' press brake, 30,000 lbs weight. An Edwards Pearson PR 4 made I believe made in England. I'm concerned about what to set it on. Our rigger says 1" plate 6x6 under each leveling screw. There is an anchoring slot next to each leveling screw. Does this type of machine need full support under the frame? Is it designed to rest on the leveling screws permanently, which does not seem like a good idea to me? Or perhaps level with the screws then shim under the anchor slots. Or grouted to the floor which I don't see anyone do today? It is flat on the bottom so no need for recessed floor. IMG_2771.jpg

Thanks,
Tim
 
It will sit on those bolts just fine.

How many leveling bolts are there? If there's only 4 or 6 then 1" plate sounds right. If there's 10 or 12 then you could get away with much thinner plate.

I'd put a spot face with an endmill the size of the leveling screw or use a drill point or even a ball endmill. That will make it harder for the pads to or machine to shift if it gets bumped.

Round bar works good too. I've made alot of leveling pads from 5-8" round bar.
 
They are designed to sit on the leveling feet. Manual on mine (little bit smaller machine, but I'm pretty sure that manufacturer uses the same plate on their larger machines) specs 8x8" plates, 3/4 thick, with a hole in the middle for the mounting bolt.

Bolting it to the floor is pretty critical, both to be able to maintain leveling, and because these things are pretty ridiculously front heavy.
 
They are not designed to sit on that bolt. Just as I have done with my Cincinnati 230 ton brake, you use the leveling stud to assist with leveling it, but you need to shim under the foot then use the anchor bolt to hold it down. Mcmaster sells U shaped shims or just cut some sheet for it. Use as little amount of pieces as possible, so use 1 1" pc instead of 4 1/4" pieces.

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They are not designed to sit on that bolt. Just as I have done with my Cincinnati 230 ton brake, you use the leveling stud to assist with leveling it, but you need to shim under the foot then use the anchor bolt to hold it down. Mcmaster sells U shaped shims or just cut some sheet for it. Use as little amount of pieces as possible, so use 1 1" pc instead of 4 1/4" pieces.

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Mine was bought new and installed by the factory authorized tech, and that's how he did installed it, and how the manual specs.

It also specs being leveled to .1mm per meter front to back, and 0.2mm per meter side to side - that's tough to achieve with bits of sheet.
 
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So if it has to stay within 3 thousandths, and you expect a bolt sitting on a non hardened plate to sit perfectly forever.

I'm pretty sure there are enough stories on here where factory techs mess things up on installs, and where manuals were written by people who never installed a machine.

Hey, it's your machine. If people dont want to take the time to set it up properly, that's their problem. My machine will sit level forever until the concrete fails since we spent half a day leveling it perfectly. Still have to check it from time to time, but 4 years later it has never moved.

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My foundation footprint said to have at least 6" of 4000 psi concrete, I cut mine out since it would only just meet minimal specs and I poured a 12" high strength pad and the front 2 anchors were set in the concrete. I figured if I was spending a lot of money on a big piece of equipment, why cheap out on 1 day of cutting out the concrete and 1 day to pour and install the anchors.

I have seen one of my competitors set a brake on what I call a floating pad. You know those pads that when you stand on them and a forklift drives over it, you can feel the pad moves. Well I wonder why they have problems.

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Some press brakes, like a 500 Ton Cincinnati require 1.5" 4140 plate to be poured into a Cincinnati specified foundation plan for the machine.
 
Bud, 30,000 pounds is nothing. It might be a big thing to you, but there are lots of things weighing several times that sitting perfectly fine on steel pads on concrete.

If you believe that your brake is perfectly leveled forever because you spent half a day leveling it and bolted it down you sure have got some to learn about how things work.

Everything changes. Unless your slab is poured on solid bedrock you need to be checking and adjusting level every seasonal change to be "perfect".

The problem with bolting it down is stuff doesn't usually stay in one spot for as long as people think it will.

I feel like bolting down is a huge waste of time and ONLY necessary under certain conditions, like the machine actually does walk across the floor.

I've owned a lot of machines and only ONE was bolted down when I bought it. The nuts were all loose. Had been for a decade and didn't matter.
 








 
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