Astro Metal Craft is a custom metal fabrication shop, thereby, metal forming (or bending) is one of our core competencies. Many of the fabrications we produce has formed parts as components of the product. This department consists of three press brakes to put the accurate bends needed in the metal fabrications produced at Astro. Our largest capacity machine for metal forming is a 350-ton, 14’ Hydraulic Cincinnati with a touch screen CNC control. Two other press brakes, along with the tooling, round out this department.

Our state of the art equipment includes over 100 press brake tool sets. We have an array of styles and makes of dies and punches along with die rails, and stops for different production needs. For big radius bends we use the Smart Pad System. Amazingly, this pliable pad is designed to bend any radius from 1” (25mm) to 4” (100mm), and up to 90° in one hit! That’s incredible metal forming abilities!

Metal Forming is an Art

First of all, the accuracy of the bend is crucial when it comes to bending sheet metal into a custom form. In most cases, it starts in our drafting department. This is where the flat lay-outs are generated with bend allowances incorporated to achieve the correct blank being produced, whether it is laser cut, sheared, or punched. From one of these operations, the sheet metal moves to the press brakes for metal forming. Forming metal is an art as much as a science. The operator sometimes needs set up pieces and a few trials to get the job to come out to print. In addition, our team guarantees top quality bends in your sheet metal forms that will meet your tolerances.

The ability of our press brakes to handle large material and multiple smaller items equates to proficient production. We offer standard to custom application bends and can perform the accuracy you need. Offering short lead times is one of our goals, and the fabricators often do different set-ups on each machine for the same job to get the job through quickly.

Some of the regular types of work that we form are stainless steel conveyor belting, brackets or parts for industrial weldments, store fixtures, architectural metal panels, and some basic laser/form-only parts.