Operating method for a working area comprising a robot enslaved to a bending press for working metal sheets

A robot enslaved to a bending press for working metal sheets, said metal sheets being fed by a feeding unit, said feeding unit, robot and bending press having prefixed geometric positions in space, said robot being provided with an arm and with a grasping member capable of moving a metal sheet and being operatively connected to a control unit, characterized in that (i) said robot is anthropomorphous and (ii) said control unit is capable of operating according to an operating method wherein, for a given metal sheet to be bent on at least one side,

• a) fixed input data are detected that comprise said geometric positions in space, without resorting to CAD techniques;
• b) variable input data arc selected which are formed by
• thickness of said metal sheet,
• height, angle and direction of each bend,
• length and orientation of each bend,
• position of a bending tool,
• without resorting to CAD techniques;
• c) the above mentioned data are processed in a processing unit by an algorithm in order to automatically generate cycles of feeding, bending and unloading of said metal sheet;
• and
• d) said cycles are transferred to said control unit of said robot so as to drive said robot and bending press to start an automatic complete productive working cycle of a finished bent metal sheet starting from said metal sheet to be bent.

A computer software program product embodied in a memory and comprising instructions executed by a processor for controlling a working area comprising a robot enslaved to a bending press for working metal sheets, said metal sheets being fed by a feeding unit, said feeding unit, robot and bending press having prefixed geometric positions in space, said robot being provided with an arm and with a grasping member capable of moving a metal sheet and being operatively connected to a control unit, characterized in that (I) said robot is anthropomorphous and (ii), for a given metal sheet to be bent on at least one side, wherein upon execution the program performs the steps of:

• a) detecting fixed input comprising geometric positions in space, without resorting to CAD techniques;
• b) selecting variable input data which are formed by
• thickness of said metal sheet,
• height, angle and direction of each bend,
• length and orientation of each bend,
• position of a bending tool,
• without resorting to CAD techniques;
• c) processing the above-mentioned data to generate automatically cycles of feeding, bending, and unloading of sheet metal;
• and
• d) transferring said cycle;
• to said control unit of said robot so as to drive said robot and bending press to start an automatic complete productive working cycle of a finished bent metal sheet starting from said metal sheet to be bent.