Gasparini, manufacturers of metal forming technologies with agents in North and South America, has developed an innovative device, named GPS4, that helps eliminate the effects of material springback. A sensor embedded into the die mechanically measures the profile angle within the die cavity, so as to always reach the exact value and avoid tedious trial-and-error processes.
This is especially useful when bending stainless steel, corrosion-resistant alloys or other high-strength steels (HSS), where elastic recover is often from 10° to 25°.
The first advantage is the possibility to bend complex shapes, with Z-bends, or with narrow flanges. In those cases, optical sensing is either ineffective or leads to problems due to error accumulation.
Another strength point is that surface finish has no influence, while it can make some laser systems ineffective. Also setup times are reduced, because the operator does not need to know thickness, length, material or bending force.