Robotic Press Brake Cells: ABB Arms in Bending

A robotic press brake cell pairs a bending machine with a robot that loads the flat sheet, holds it through every bend and stacks the finished part. ABB already called these cells a common sight in 2002, and programming them is still the slow part. This post follows bending from hand-operated leaf brakes to CNC press brakes, then to the first robot cells and ABB's BendWizard software in 2002. It ends with what fabricators will see at FABTECH 2026 in Las Vegas this month, and where ABB robots such as the IRB 6700 and GoFa fit in bending today.

An orange ABB robot in Foundry finish holds a sheet at a Trumpf TrumaBend V230 press brake, 2005. Photo: Borowski / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

From leaf brakes to CNC press brakes

Before powered machines, sheet metal workers folded panels on a leaf brake. The sheet was clamped along the bend line, and the worker swung a hinged leaf up by hand to fold the edge. Tinsmiths and roofers used these brakes to make gutters, ducts and cornices, and patents kept improving them; one from 1871, granted to Friedrich Yaesche, describes an improved brake for bending sheet metal. The machines were simple and durable, which is why many still stand in old workshops, but every bend depended on the worker's strength and eye.

A hand-operated leaf brake from Maschinenfabrik Weingarten in a historic tinsmith's workshop in Kisslegg, Germany. Photo: Andreas Praefcke / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Mechanical press brakes replaced arm power with a flywheel and a ram that drove a punch into a die along the whole length of the sheet. In the United States they used American-style tooling, long sections planed from tool steel, that worked best for coining and bottoming. Setting them up was slow. Operators often had to shim the tooling to correct for deflection, and Larry Boden of Mate Precision Technologies told The Fabricator in September 2026 that a single setup could take six hours. CNC press brakes arrived in the late 1970s, and precision-ground tooling with tolerances as tight as 0.0005 in. made accurate air bending practical.

A CNC press brake from EHT at work in a fabrication shop, 2005. Photo: Wolfgang Feld / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0 DE)

Robots were added to press brakes in the following decades. By 2002 ABB Review could call robotic press brake tending "a common sight in sheet metal fabrication workshops", with better quality, less scrap and improved safety than manual tending. ABB had standardized its cells as the FlexBender range and that year described BendWizard, software built on RobotStudio after three years of development. An operator imported a DXF or IGES drawing of the flat part, set up the tooling and defined the bend sequence, while the program checked reach and collisions. The goal was to make batches of 50 parts or fewer worth automating.

An operator teaches an ABB robot with the FlexPendant in a metal fabrication cell, from ABB's 2007 metal fabrication brochure. Photo: ABB

Robotic press brakes at FABTECH 2026

Bending cells will be running on the show floor this month. FABTECH 2026 runs from 21 to 23 October at the Las Vegas Convention Center, its first time in Las Vegas since 2016, with more than 31,000 visitors and 1,400 exhibitors expected. Canadian Metalworking's preview on 1 October said manufacturers are weighing automation against labor shortages and rising costs, and cited an American Welding Society estimate that the industry is short about 400,000 workers. Bending has its own version of the problem, since tooling and bend order are learned over years. Boden, after 40 years in the trade, told The Fabricator that the more you know, the less you know.

US Air Force Staff Sgt. Mason Johnson bends a seal retainer on a cornice brake at Ellsworth Air Force Base, 2009. Photo: Corey Hook / U.S. Air Force via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Several bending systems will be shown running. Flow International will pair its HyperBend press brake with an assistive robot arm, alongside its waterjets and fiber laser. SafanDarley plans to demonstrate its Mini Cell automatic bending cell and a 100-ton electric press brake, and Durma a panel bender with a pick and place system. Most of these are compact cells sized for job shops. Tooling matters as much as the robot here, and Boden's point in The Fabricator was that setup time is money: quick tool changes and precise tools are what make short runs pay.

A 420 ton, 8 meter hydraulic press brake built by Gasparini. Photo: Gasparini Industries / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

ABB's part in this is the robot and its software. Large sheets go to heavy arms such as the IRB 6700, which handles payloads up to 300 kg, while smaller parts can be tended by mid-size arms or by the GoFa CRB 15000 cobot, which senses contact through torque sensors in its joints. ABB's machine tending software and RobotStudio let engineers plan the gripper, the regrips and the bend sequence offline, much as BendWizard did in 2002. In metal shops ABB robots also tend CNC machines, for example IRB 6620LX arms on an overhead rail at DAU Componentes in Spain.

ABB IRB 6620LX robots on an overhead rail tending CNC machines at DAU Componentes, Spain. Photo: ABB

Where robotic bending goes next

In factories, the next step is fewer people per bending cell and faster changeovers. Automatic tool changers already swap punches and dies without an operator, and robots that pick sheets from a stack and stack finished parts can run a cell through a night shift. The hard part is the bend itself: as the brake closes, the sheet swings upward, and the robot has to follow it without letting go or bending it the wrong way. Software that reads a 3D model and works out the bend order, grip points and robot path is what decides how quickly a new part goes into production.

Engineers share a robot cell design through RobotStudio Cloud. Photo: ABB

Small shops are the bigger change. Cobots such as GoFa can be moved to a press brake for a batch and then rolled away, and a worker can teach them by guiding the arm by hand, as our guide to programming robots without code explains. That suits job shops with many short runs, but a cobot has to stay within its payload, which rules out heavy plate. Press brakes are also a home workshop tool in a small way: hobbyists and roofers use manual brakes, but a robot at a home bench is not something any maker, ABB included, offers.

An ABB GoFa cobot loading parts into a machine at a small factory. Photo: ABB

A robotic bending cell costs much more than the press brake alone, so it has to run many hours to pay back. A press brake also closes with tons of force, and a robot cell needs guarding or safety functions such as SafeMove to keep people out of the danger zone. The biggest limit is people: someone still has to understand springback, tooling and bend order, and plan the robot program around them, which is why many shops build and test the cell in simulation before it reaches the floor.

An old cornice brake made by the J. M. Robinson Manufacturing Company of Cincinnati, on display in Toronto's Distillery District. Photo: Larry Koester / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

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