Metallic Bellow Forming Machine was developed to obtain uniform and accurate bellow with mechanical cold forming with an completely automated process. The machine has an hydraulic cylinder, which will open and close the bellow die. The bellow die expands to form the bellow. The actual bellow blank, a stainless steel sheet metal seam welded in cylindrical shape, rests on a rotary indexing table which inturn is mounted on a vertical indexing slide. This indexing slide, is driven by a servo motor connected to a ballscrew. The sliding surfaces are made of LM guides and blocks for smooth and fast indexing. The servo motor, hydraulic expansion and indexing table rotation is seamlessly integrated with a PLC for complete auto-cycle function. A 7″ touchscreen HMI  is provided, so that parameters such as bellow pitch, number of rotations and angle of rotation per expansion, speed of indexing, etc can be easily entered and set. This machine was designed to form bellows from Ø240 to Ø400 mm.

FEATURES & SPECS:

• Rigid, heavily ribbed, stress relieved and fabricated structural.
• Atop the base, a fixture is mounted on a vertical slide.
• This vertical slide is servo driven in combination with ballscrew for high positional accuracy.
• On this carriage of the vertical slide, a fixture is mounted which can hold the job and rotate it.
• The rotation of the fixture is motorized and will be integrated into the PLC auto-cycle.
• At the center of the fixture, a die is mounted with a hydraulic press. This die has a wedge type arrangement to open and close.
• PLC programmed auto-cycle will be provided for the machine.

SEQUENCE OF OPERATION:

• Set the required pitch on the HMI.
• Load the job and press auto-cycle.
• The vertical slide moves the job & fixture to the position for first bellow formation.
• The press moves down and the die expands for the form the sheet metal.
• Now, the die retracts slightly to free the component, but still remains within the groove.
• Now the fixture indexes by preset angle and the die expands and contracts for ‘N’ number. Now, the fixture indexes again and the die expands and contracts again.
• The above step is repeated as per the preset parameters.
• Now the die completely contracts and the vertical slide moves the component to the next pitch.
• The forming process repeats again for the rest of the bellow form.