Above: An operator runs the LVD Easy-Form hydraulic press brake at The Warren Co.
January, 2026- Founded in 1913 as a steel service center, the fifth-generation, family-owned The Warren Co. evolved to also provide fabrication and machining services at its 188,000-square-foot facility in Erie, Pennsylvania. Riley Warren, fabrication and engineering supervisor, says the company’s services include laser cutting, grinding, stamping, sawing, welding, plasma and torch cutting, and bending.
Company leaders describe forming metal as the most critical part of metal fabrication. With four press brakes that have capacities from 50 to 400 tons already in its equipment lineup, the service center shopped for an additional one in late 2024, Warren says. After gathering various quotes, Warren selected the Easy-Form 240-ton, 14-foot bed hydraulic press brake from LVD North America in Akron, New York, based on his positive experience with LVD’s service department at a previous employer.
“Their service techs were very helpful and able to diagnose a lot of things over the phone,” he adds. “When they would come on site, they were very knowledgeable about the press brake and about bending best practices.”
LVD reports that the 19-inch Touch-B control is user-friendly and makes full use of the press brake’s bending capabilities.
As part of the sales process, LVD brought a press brake in its purpose-designed semitrailer to the service center to demonstrate the machine’s capabilities, Warren says. The newest press brake was installed last March.
ACCURATE ANGLES
One of the machine’s highlights that Warren says caught his attention is the Easy-Form Laser (EFL) adaptive bending, in-process angle monitoring system. LVD reports that EFL allows the press brake to compensate for material variations such as sheet thickness, strain hardening and grain direction. Scanners constantly measure the bend angle and transmit the information in real time to the CNC, which immediately adjusts the punch position to ensure precise, consistent bending.
Most press brake manufacturers offer some sort of optical measurement device, according to Warren, but LVD’s optical feedback is “unmatched from other different systems for measuring springback.”
Without EFL, he adds that the only option to “tune” a press brake to the job at hand is to create multiple test pieces, which is not a welcome scenario in a job shop that produces a significant number of one-off pieces. “There are a lot of situations where you can’t exactly cut a bunch of extra test pieces because you just lost all your money on the job cutting test pieces, then bending those to make sure that your angle is correct. Th Easy-Form has allowed us to become more profitable as well as more efficient.”
The 6-axis modular backgauge on the Easy-Form press brake, which is benefi cial when bending cones, off sets and parts with “weird” contours.
While reading the angle of bend in real time, the machine will bend the workpiece based on a historical database for that thickness and material, Warren explains. For example, based on past history that an end user enters, springback might be 3.7 degrees when targeting a 90-degree bend. “It’ll bend it to 93.7 degrees, so that springback allows you to have a perfect 90-degree bend regardless of the input material.”
The range of material used in the press brake includes aluminum, stainless steel and hotand cold-rolled carbon steel, he says, in dimensions from 1-inch wide to 14 feet long. “The Easy- Form has a plus or minus half-degree tolerance range on it, so that’s what we target. You can get it more accurate than that for a job that’s long running.”
After bending with the press brake, about half of the parts get welded, Warren says, and the other half get painted or shipped to customers.
FEELING BENDY
Workpiece thickness is generally from 5/16 inch to 16 gauge, Warren notes. “Thinner than that and it gets a little floppy. The thicker, more rigid the material is where the Easy- Form really shines.”
When material is more flexible, such as an 18-gauge part, he explains that the EFL will have difficulty reading the bend angle because it is changing frequently. When that occurs, the equipment is changed to air bending mode, which is the standard correction-based operating environment. “You basically turn off or on the Easy-Form Laser, depending on what you want to do or what parts you have.”
The press brake has a backgauge range that starts from a basic 2-axis backgauge up to a 5- or 6-axis system to enhance flexibility. LVD reports that the three-point gauge fingers allow automatic calculation and setting of both the backgauge and side stop positions for accurate part production.
The Easy-Form Laser adaptive bending, in-process angle monitoring system allows the press brake to compensate for material variations such as sheet thickness, strain hardening and grain direction.
Warren says the fabricator’s machine has the 6-axis option to enable positioning both backgauges differently, which is beneficial when bending cones, off sets and parts with “weird” contours. “Basically, if you’re bending parts that aren’t rectangles, you want the 6- axis package, in my opinion.”
Another feature to enable accurate bending is CNC crowning in which sheet thickness, bend length, die opening and tensile strength data are entered into the Touch-B control to determine the amount of crowning required to compensate for bed and ram deflection, according to LVD. The company’s proprietary design reportedly creates an ideal curve by using accurately machined contact wedges that move against each other under servo control.
“It enables that machine to have the correct level of crowning from the beginning,” Warren adds. “There is no more shimming the bottom die and no more saying ‘let’s hit it and watch the middle be under-bent.’ CNC crowning basically raises the middle of the bed so that when you’re pressing on it, it compensates for the deflection across the bed.”
OFFLINE PREPARATION
Warren emphasizes that the CADMAN-B offline programming software, which uses LVD’s intelligent bending database, enhances ease of operation. The software automatically unfolds the parts, calculates press brake bend allowances, creates the 2D DXF file and determines the optimal bend sequence, tooling, tool and gauge positions.
“We program all of our parts in the office now, even if it’s a one-off , so that the operators just have to call up the program and it shows them where to place the tools, what the part orientation looks like and where holes are,” he adds. “CADMAN-B both in the office and on the press brake screen is the most user-friendly interface that’s on a press brake today.”
Programming offline helps get operators up to speed quicker, Warren says. “That basically lowers the entry-level skill that we need in order to have an operator efficiently run that press brake.”
He notes that the difference between The Warren Co.’s older 150-ton CNC press brake and the new Easy-Form is “night and day. You can adjust anything you want out on the floor and so it’s pretty impactful for us; it definitely increases our efficiency.”
LVD North America, 716/542-4511, lvdgroup.com
The Warren Co, 814/920-9404, thewarrencompany.com
