When shopping for sheet metal brakes, it’s good to know what the individual parts
of the machine are called. That way, you’ll better be able to understand the sales material in terms of features and specifications, and the general condition of the machine – if you are looking for a used brake.

Manual sheet metal brakes:

• The bed is a vertical bar or table, on which the workpiece (yhe sheet metal blank) rests.
• The clamping leaf sits above the bed, and can be brought down with a lever, clamping the workpiece to the bed.
• The bending leaf is a heavy hinged steel bar (almost a slab) which swiwels in front of the bed/clamping leaf opening.
  This is what bends the clamped down sheet metal to the desired angle.

• Counterweights are found on some sheet metal brakes – usually the larger ones. They help lift the bending leaf, which needs to be quite heavy
  when bending thick sheet metal.

• Fingers are found on box and pan brakes; also sometimes called finger brakes. Fingers are like detachable “teeth” on the clamping leaf,
  that can be removed and reconfigured when making box-shapes. This allows the user to bend a workpiece on all four sides without crushing the bent
  up material on the sides perpendicular to the side currently being bent.

Hydraulic press brakes:

• The ram is the hydraulic piston which exerts the force used in the bending process. Can be cnc controlled.
• The bed is not exactly the same thing as in a manual sheet metal brake. On a press brake, the bed holds one half of the tooling used to
  bend the blank.

• The punch is the tool attached to the ram. It is pressed downwards on the blank resting on…
• The die, which is the female counterpart to the the male punch. If, for instance, you want to do a 90-degree bend, you might have an arrow-shaped punch
  combined with a v-shaped die.

• The backgage is another important part of the press brake. This is an adjustable stop to control the insertion depth of the blank past the punch and die,
  meaning it controls where on the blank the bend will occur. This is also an element which can be cnc controlled.

Now you know a bit more about the bits and pieces that make up sheet metal benders and press brakes. – and