Chicago Dreis & Krump Hydraulic and Mechanical Powered Leaf Brake machines with push button controls to bend metal into many shapes including box and pan shapes

Hydraulic Powered Metal Folding Machines

A standard metal folding machine needs no die changes. The machine bed supports the sheet metal, not the worker. This makes it less labor intensive than a press brake and therefore is great for short-run, and just-in-time metal bending jobs. Extra thick aluminum sheet metal can be bent. Powerful bends can be made in 10 gauge steel up to 8 feet long. Huge sheet metal panels up to 14 feet long can be bent!

Chicago Dreis & Krump adds hydraulic power with push buttons and foot pedals to convert its famous sheet metal hand brake machines into very productive metal folding machines. You can save time, money and your back with the push button hydraulic power. Two man jobs become one man jobs. They are so easy to operate. A simple to use bend angle adjustment dial completely eliminates the need for tooling and related time consuming setups. This machine can also form your coated or polished metal without a scratch. These durable, labor saving, high performance work horses are totally self contained. They will accurately bend standard or special design forms and can even make 1/4" reverse bends on light gauge steel with the optional 1/4" insert bar.

Click to Watch a Video

Standard Equipment:

• Removable Nose Bar
• Bolted Bottom Bar
• Compact Hydraulic Power Unit
• Angle Bar
• Insert Bar
• Oil Level Sight Gauge

Electric Foot Switch - Clamps and unclamps Top Leaf. Allows operator mobility when loading and unloading material.

Bend Angle Dial Adjustment- Adjustable cam and scale that read in degrees, actuates an electric limit switch for bend angle control and repeatability of bends.

Material Thickness Dial Adjustment - Reference scale for speedier set up when adjusting clamping pressure.

Back Gauge - 25 1/2" travel, rack and pinion type with hand wheel adjustment on right side of machine. Inch/Cm scales.

Inch Control - Bending leaf up/down pushbuttons allow complete operator control of the bending leaf motion.

Automatic Cycle - Actuating the "Automatic Pushbutton" clamps the top leaf, raises the bending leaf to the preset bend angle dial adjustment setting, lowers the bending leaf, unclamps the top leaf.

Options Available:

• Insert Bar - 1/4 inch (for closer offset bends)
• Radius Formers - for forming gutters, mouldings, and prototypes from thin sheet metal.
• Electronic push button operated Back Gauge with digital readout (see directly below).

Hydraulic Metal Bending Box & Pan Brake Machine

With fingers for box and pan type and optional radius forming to depth of up to 6"

Click to see video of this hydraulic metal bending machine

Click for our instructions how to make a box out of sheet metal

Options Available:

• Radius Nose Bars up to 1.5" radius (great for aluminum aircraft work) -see picture below.
• Extension Fingers (to form rigid inside corners with a return flange across the top) -see below.
• Open End Fingers (to form tubes of triangular, square, rectangular, or tapered shape) -see below.
• Insert Bar - 1/4 inch (for closer offset bends)
• Radius Formers - for forming gutters, mouldings, and prototypes from thin sheet metal.
• Electronic push button operated Back Gauge with digital readout (see directly below).

Optional Radius Nose Bars are available for bending your metal around a radius, which is useful for bending aircraft aluminum. Extension Fingers are used to form inside corners with a return flange across the top. Open End Fingers are used to form tubes of triangular, square, rectangular, or tapered shape.

Hydraulic Powered Metal Bending Machine

capable of bending 3/16 or 1/4 thick steel up to 10 feet long

Buy it equipped with NC Controls for back gage and bend angle. This is the next best thing to owning a Press Brake but without the high price or tool changes. The Chicago Hydraulic Powered Leaf Brake will bend up to 1/4 inch thick steel but it can also bend sheet metal without changing the tooling! Model HBP is designed to make box shapes and pan shapes up to 6 inches deep. This machine is easy to use because it works similar to a hand brake machine.

Click to see video of the machine

Features: Adustable clamping pressure, adjustable open height, bending leaf gap adjustment, hand wheel operated manual rack & pinion type back gauge with positioning bar or optional numerically controlled back gauge with digital readout. Bend position and bend angle can be stored and changed in the NC control panel. The box/pan capable version has removeable fingers. Minimum reverse bend is 1.18" on 3/16" capacity machine. Minimum reverse bend is 1.37" on 1/4" capacity machine.

Power Leaf Brake

Bend up to 3/4 thick steel plate! Standard metal bending, or Box & Pan bending, in regular, medium and heavy duty capacities. Expensive, but every model we sell includes power clamping and motorized top leafs for maximum productivity and no need for die sets. Everything is solidly built to last for many many years, from the welded steel plate frames with box type support to the powerful gear head motors with built-in magnetic brakes. These machines offer the kind of staying power and efficiency that includes radius bending abilities usually associated with roll forming equipment or stamping presses. Our Box and Pan versions are just as rugged and stable as our standard models. The sectional, adjustable, finger assemblies even let you easily bend five sided boxes up to 8" deep, and shapes such as tubes. This mechanical Power Leaf Brake is totally made in USA.

Over $100,000

Power Leaf Brake Features:

• Power Unit - Powerful, cool running direct drive gear head motor is equipped with built in magnetic brake
• Drive System - Self aligning main shaft bearings assure smooth power transmission. Rack and pinion gear
• Power Clamping - Dual air cylinders actuate eccentric clamping links to secure piece part for accurate bending.
• Power Top Adjustments - Motor adjusts top leaf accurately to thickness of work piece for correct bending radius.
• Bend Stops - Micro limit switch controls bending leaf travel for repeatable angle bends on the finished work.
• Operator Controls - Dual operator stations placed at sides of unit for clear view of the qwork area.

Straight Plate Bending Machines

Box & Pan Bending Machines with 8" Finger Extensions

Finger Assortments