Used Amada Press Brakes For Sale

Amada ran two separate control lineages for decades, because it had two separate factories.

• Japanese line, on RG, FBD, HD, HDS, HG and HRB: AutoBend 7, NC9-EX, NC9-EXII, the LD and NT controls, AMNC, AMNC-PC, AMNC 3i, AMNC 4ie.
• European line, on the Promecam-heritage machines ITS, HFB, HFE, HFT and HFE M2: MB, Operateur, Operateur OP2, Operateur OPE II, Operateur 2000, AB Pad, AB Pad Evolution.

The HFP and the HFE3i cross over to the Japanese AMNC line.

Control By Control

Program Transfer

This is the biggest practical headache on an older Amada and almost no listing mentions it.

• Legacy machines use 1.44 MB or 720 kB floppy drives. USB floppy emulators are made specifically for HFB, HFBO and older HFE machines, and they work well.
• Some HFE machines hold only around 60 programs on the control and on the stick, and will accept only the USB stick supplied by the Amada dealer. Identically formatted aftermarket sticks get rejected.
• From AMNC-PC onwards storage is unlimited over the network, and by AMNC 3i programs live in a networked database.
• Amada's own answer for older machines is FabriTALK for BEND, a Windows package that puts a legacy brake on a network with graphical bend sequence display.

Ask us about this before you buy and we will tell you what a given machine can and cannot do.

Delem And Cybelec

You will see Amada machines advertised with Delem or Cybelec controls. On the European HFB and Promecam machines these are usually retrofits, and they are a good thing. A Delem DA-56, DA-66T or a ModEva is a modern, well supported control with parts and training freely available. Retrofit is a mature market for Amada, and specialists rework RG, FBD, HFB and Promecam machines as standard work.

• Two axes, Y and X. Fine for simple repeat flanges.
• Motorised R. The first thing you miss on box work.
• Motorised Z1 and Z2. The biggest labour saver on mixed batches.
• Delta X or X1 and X2. Only earns its keep on tapered and non-parallel parts.

Dealers count axes differently. The same machine is advertised as 5 axis by one seller and 7 axis by another, depending on whether the two ram cylinders are counted. We publish the full axis list on every machine we sell.

Under load the ram and the bed both bow away from each other in the middle. Without correction the middle of a long bend comes out at a more open angle than the ends. Crowning cancels that out. Amada solves it several ways depending on the machine.

• Bi-S. Mechanical contact probe, one or two axis, double sided. Works from 90 to 165 degrees and 1 to 6 mm thick. Measures springback and corrects the next stroke, so there is no trial bending.
• Bi-L. Laser, offered alongside Bi-S on HD generation machines.
• Bi-M. Laser, an HFE3i option, with real time correction.
• Digipro. A wireless hand-held protractor. The operator measures the bend, the reading goes to the control by radio and the control adjusts the program itself. On the HFE M2 and HFE3i.

An angle measuring system on a used machine is worth real money. It removes trial bends, which is where scrap comes from.

Because Amada bought Promecam, Promecam's tooling geometry became the European standard. Promecam style, Euro style, European style and Amada style all mean the same tooling.

Amada does not publish its tang dimension. The 13 mm figure is the one quoted consistently by the independent tooling makers, so treat it as theirs rather than Amada's.

• You are not locked into Amada-branded tooling. Amada and Promecam style is a de facto standard. Rolleri, Precitools, CAD Technologies and others all build to it.
• Amada style will not fit a Wila or Trumpf machine. 13 mm tang against 20, one groove against two. Moving from a Trumpf to an Amada, the tooling does not come with you.
• Watch the words New Standard. Wila sells a modern 20 mm range under that name. Some American suppliers use it to mean the old half inch tooling. Buyers get caught by this regularly.
• AFH is Amada Fixed Height, in 70, 90, 120 and 160 mm. Different profiles share one height so several sit side by side in one setup. It also means the laser guard is not re-taught at every tool change.
• S-Grip is worth finding. It holds both European style tooling and Amada's AFH, which makes a used machine materially more flexible.

Genuine Amada tooling is laser etched with the type, angle, tonnage, length and radius. Check the marks are there and legible.

Pick the vee first. Amada's own published rule, from its bending tools catalogue:

Then read the force. Amada's figures for mild steel, in kN per metre of bend:

For other materials Amada's instruction is to use the mild steel figures and multiply by k = Rm / 450, where Rm is the tensile strength in N/mm². Mild steel is about 450 and stainless about 700.

• Your tooling has its own tonnage rating, usually lower than the machine's. Amada marks it on the tool.
• Short bends concentrate the load. Never apply full machine tonnage over a short centre length.

Amada did not design its own first press brake. In 1965 it signed a technical agreement with Promecam Sisson-Lehmann, a French builder that had been making press brakes since 1955, and began producing them under licence as the RG series. In 1986 Amada bought Promecam outright.

The French factory became Amada's European press brake plant and still builds them today at Montval-sur-Loir, the same commune as Promecam's old works. That is why older machines are badged Amada Promecam, why the standard European tooling is called Promecam style, and why Amada runs two separate control families, one Japanese and one European.

Amada UK was incorporated in 1972 and built its Kidderminster technical centre in 1986.