Ermaksan Power-Bend PRO 135 t, 3.1 m CNC press brake for precise, energy-lean bending in UAE workshops
First things first, it is a press brake, nothing exotic, but it bends sheet like there is no tomorrow. You walk into the shop, see the gray-green body, hit the foot pedal, get a crisp bend, then think, wow, that was fast. I have seen slower coffee machines.
People ask, why do you keep talking about a press brake as if it was a sports car, simple, the response of the ram tells you more about the mood of the entire production line than any fancy dashboard. One jam, the entire shift feels it.
Let me pin the cold figures to the wall before they slip away, we all know numbers speak louder than my excited rant.
Before the table, pause, sip your coffee, because the digits do matter.
| Spec | Value |
|---|---|
| Bending force | 1350 kN |
| Working length | 3100 mm |
| Stroke | 265 mm |
| Open height | 520 mm |
| Approach speed | 180 mm/s |
| Bending speed | 10 mm/s |
| Return speed | 160 mm/s |
| Backgauge X travel | 750 mm |
| Machine weight | 9800 kg |
The table ends, but your process starts, the weight sounds scary, yet in a ground floor workshop of Abu Dhabi outskirts it behaves like a gentle giant, no floor cracks, just slow vibration, almost soothing.
Some swear throughput is a myth, others count parts per shift. I stand in the middle. With 3 operators on rotation you squeeze about 640 brackets per 10 hour shift, thickness 3 mm stainless, single V-die. Swap to 6 mm mild steel and that drops to roughly 200 brackets, the physics is brutal. Nothing to blame the Power-Bend for, force curve is predictable.
Notice, no press brake magician tricks here, just plain numbers, your mileage still varies, humidity and sand gusts in Sharjah do funny things to lubrication film.
I jump a bit, cannot hold a linear narrative. The Delem DA-66T, touch screen, bright, even under harsh LED bay lights, feels like a giant phone. Swipe, drop a bend angle, the control draws a backgauge path, no drama. Sometimes I wish the panel corners were rounded, my elbow caught it once, left a bruise, silly detail, but users remember pain.
Backgauge fingers glide on linear guides, the motor hum is barely audible, more of a purr. During fast approach the ram hits 180 mm/s, ears pop, then the CNC slows down to 10 mm/s for the actual bend. That contrast, yes, keeps you alert.
Enterprise owners in Dubai Investment Park keep one eye on energy cost, another on lead time. The Power-Bend PRO lands in a decent sweet spot, pulls roughly 12 kW peak, average cycle floats near 6 kW. Compare it with older hydraulic presses gulping 18 kW, the saving after 24 months pays for the yearly service call, simple math.
Sand, again. Desert dust finds its way into backgauge ball screws, so most shops slap magnetic covers, worth the 80 dirham upgrade. Without the cover backlash creeps above 0.05 mm by month 6, I have measured it.
Time to throw other names into the ring without throwing punches.
The Ermaksan slots right in the middle, not the heaviest, not the lightest, yet serviceable by one technician, parts stocked in Istanbul, shipping to Jebel Ali takes roughly 5 days.
Power-Bend PRO itself is not a single child. The series ranges from 40 ton machines for HVAC duct shops up to 600 ton monsters bending ship plates. The 135 ton variant we dissect here is version 4 of the series, launched 2020, firmware updated 2022, small tweak to the hydraulic manifold. If you jump to the 170 ton sibling the ram and frame bulk up, but the control panel stays the same, which is neat for operator cross training.
You thought you bought plug and play, reality laughs.
Each quirk solvable in under 1 hour, yet worth mentioning so newcomers skip the frustration.
Stress, dirt, time, they chew on hardware. I keep a scrappy checklist on the cabinet door.
| Task | Interval | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Oil filter | 1000 h | Replace, not just rinse |
| Backgauge lube | 250 h | Two pumps of NLGI-2 |
| Ram parallelism check | 6 months | Feeler gauge under tooling |
Keep spares, especially proximity sensors, they cost pennies but halt production when they die.
Scrolling forums you notice mixed tone. One operator claims, my angles drifted after 5 months, tech found loose Y1 scale bracket, fixed in 15 minutes. Another boasts, ran 40k bends without recalibration. Both true in their worlds. Broad lesson, vibration kills bolts, periodic torquing keeps life simple.
The brand sits on the market since 1965, exports to 110 countries, churns out around 4000 presses per year. Scale means spares exist, I called a small vendor in Sharjah, he had ram seals on shelf, zero waiting, that made me grin.
Decision makers care about three things, capacity, uptime, face-saving in front of clients. Power-Bend ticks enough boxes, not all, yet enough to sign the PO.
No tech fairy tale here. Just steel, oil, and a screen that feels too bright at night shift. The machine bends, does not complain, you will though, once dust sneaks in. Treat it well and it quietly spits parts until accountants smile.
Bottom line, if your fabrication volumes hover between 5 and 25 tons of sheet per week, if you need angles within ±0.5 degree, and if your floor space tops at 4.2 meters in length, this press brake fits like a glove.
That is it, tools tight, fingers clear, pedal down.
