Fabrication Machines: What Architects Need to Know

“Metal fabrication machines allow the architect to create a part from a flat blank of sheet metal, and that can be intricately cut and formed for decorative or functional uses in a building, both inside and out,” says Matt Garbarino, director of marketing communications, Cincinnati Inc., Harrison, Ohio.

Flexibility in design—that’s how today’s metal fabrication machines aid architects designs, explains David R. Prokop, executive vice president at MetalForming Inc., Peachtree City, Ga.

“With the proper tool, the architect is only limited in design by their own creativity. But what is important is that the technological level of the machine provides the flexibility in output, as opposed to it being labor dependent. A complex profile being produced with similar effort as a simple one is what the proper flexible technology provides. Those with that key can open any door they choose.”

AUTOMATED PRESS BRAKES

Press brakes come in a variety of sizes and tooling configurations to form sheet metal in almost any imaginable shape. Garbarino says the thickness and type of the material, as well as the size of the parts, dictates the tonnage and length of the press brake needed.

“Architects need to know that although press brakes are very accurate these days, bending metal will create a bend radius, and it will not be a sharp corner/bend,” says Brandon Reeve, CEO/president/owner of Applied Fabricators Inc., Greenfield, Ind. “Also, you cannot have a bend angle that changes from one end to the other. Finally, architects need to be aware that there are limits to dimensions between bends, and especially between reverse bends.”

DOUBLE FOLDERS

Larry Chandonnet, CIDAN Machinery, Peachtree City, Ga., explains that when an architect wants to put his look on a building with custom wall panels, fabricating them with double folder machinery is a very successful method to do that. “Double folders eliminate the need to flip and rotate the part during the forming process.

The machine will grip the part and automatically bend it to the desired shape that the architect wants. It gives the architect flexibility—instead of picking a drawing that is a standard—to design what he wants based on the look he wants to achieve architecturally. Double folders really take a different look at the fronts of buildings that architects want to enhance.”

Prokop asserts that folders are the number one bending process in the architectural industry. He breaks them down into three categories:

• Roofing or flashing folders: Typically, simple 10- foot or 12-foot folders, linear profiles, in 16-gauge or less
• Long folders: Typically, 21 feet and above in length, linear profiles
• Precision folders: Used for building enclosure panels, four-sided parts, aluminum composite material panels

PANEL BENDERS

Reeve says panel benders are becoming more popular for architectural applications because they are very accurate, very fast and can fabricate many panel shapes, with four sides, and multiple bends in different directions. But, he explains, they are usually only capable of bending smaller lengths of panels: typical press brakes are 10 to 12 feet, whereas panel benders are usually 7 to 8 feet.

“It would be hard to find a faster way to produce a large volume of the same part than a panel bender,” Prokop says. “Its bending method differs from both the folder and press brake and can introduce some cosmetic issues. They are generally less flexible than a folder and the press brake, but certainly have their place in high-volume applications.”

Chandonnet says benders give architects the flexibility in length and width for four-sided panels. “The alternative [to a bender] would be to go in-plant with a portable rollformer, but that only gives the architect the opportunity for an existing panel. It doesn’t give them the opportunity to change the design. However, Tom Laird, senior account manager for New Tech Machinery, Aurora, Colo., contends that, “The panels produced by our portable rollforming machines are readily accepted in the architectural community. Nothing is proprietary about our metal roof panel profiles. Architects can choose from a variety of panels to make or use from one single machine.”

CNC TECHNOLOGY

Computer Numerical Control (CNC) technology directs a laser head to cut metal. “If the architect is looking to do custom wall panels that are four-sided, then a CNC router, laser or punch press is required to make the blank,” Chandonnet says. Reeve stresses that, “The CNC router’s cut line is not a pinpoint line like a laser; it usually needs 1/4- to 3/8-inch of a route-cut line. Similar to a saw blade, you have to account for the thickness of the blade of area you lose when saw cutting.”

Dan Shields, president of Fabricated Products Group, Frankfort, Ill., explains that in addition to a five-axis CNC machine, architects can utilize 3-D printing and water jets for their designs. “All of these machines could be used early in prototyping profiles. They can also be used in the concept phase to avoid long delays in the approval process.”

SOFTWARE

As important as fabrication machinery is to architects’ designs, its related software technology is of equal importance. Prokop explains that starting at the designer’s order entry desk and continuing through the entire process to the shipping docks, it makes all processes function as one. “Profiles provided in 3-D CAD modelling can quickly be turned into a final part profile or determined to be unmanufacturable. You can bring an entire building into the system and the software system can explode the building into individual components—a rollformed roof, a flashing—and automatically optimize the material integration to make the blanks. The three things I always talk about are you need to reduce, simplify or eliminate. The technology exists for all three of these. Software is truly as critical as the machine is.”

Chandonnet says architects can now go to fabricators’ websites with their designs, draw their profiles right on them and have them automatically downloaded to the fabricator. “That drawing will directly link to the fabrication machines that can bend it exactly the way it is drawn from the architect.”

As the technology and operation platforms of fabrication machines continue to advance, the design and fabrication of architectural products become more seamless. Reeve explains, “The technology and automation of the machinery these days helps architects create many more possibilities of shapes and designs, allowing them to be more creative in building aesthetics. [Also,] involve fabricators more often in the design stages initially so the designs can be tailored by the fabricator for the architect, depending on the desire of the architect whether it be aesthetics, or ease and budget.”

Prokop explains that the industry is making a rapid evolutionary change from being labor centric to being machine and technology centric. “This totally changes the profiles that can be formed, and the costs for doing so. Don’t be challenged by the constraints of the past. Instead, challenge the fabricators to produce your desired designs, and implement the flexible technology to turn your designs into a manufacturable reality.”