Combined punching and shearing machine
One frame, several stations: punch a hole, shear a plate, cut an angle, notch a corner — without walking the part across the shop. This is the machine class structural and general fabrication shops buy when one operator needs to do all of those jobs.
Why shops buy one
A structural or general fabrication shop processes angle, channel, flat bar and plate in piece lots. Done with separate machines, a part visits a punch press, then a plate shear, then a section shear, then a notcher — with handling, queueing and a setup at each stop. A combined machine puts the common cutting operations within reach of one operator at one infeed, which is where the time and the scrap actually go on this kind of work.
The stations and what each does
- Punching station: holes in plate and flat bar with interchangeable punches and dies. Rated by plate thickness and hole diameter.
- Plate shearing station: straight cuts in flat stock, rated by thickness and width.
- Angle and channel shearing station: crops angle iron and channel to length, rated by the section size — a different limit from plate thickness.
- Notching station: corner notches and relief cuts that would otherwise need a torch or a bandsaw.
- Bar cutting station: round, square and flat bar cut-off.
Not every machine carries every station, and the ratings differ per station on the same machine. The honest way to specify one is a list of your worst part per station — thickness, width, section size, hole diameter — not a single tonnage number.
How it works with the rest of the shop
Combined machines are cutting tools. The parts they make then get formed on a press brake, a roller or a press. In a typical layout the combined machine feeds the brake: clip angles, gussets, base plates and stiffeners come off the combined machine and get their bends on the brake. Thesteel structure industry page walks through that workflow and which machines carry it.
Frame and drive
The class is built around a heavy steel frame with the stations mounted along it, driven by a hydraulic system with an integrated valve block. Two things decide long-term accuracy on these machines: frame rigidity, because all stations share it, and blade and punch holding, because a station that shifts under load produces parts that are almost right — which is worse than wrong.
What to check before you order
- Station ratings individually — plate thickness, section size and hole diameter per station, in writing.
- Blade material and regrind: what the blades are made from, how many regrinds they take, and whether replacements are available in your country.
- Punch and die changeover: how long a station change takes; a machine that takes an hour to swap tooling gets used at one setting forever.
- Guarding per station: fixed and interlocked, matched to how the machine will actually be run.
- Footprint and infeed: these machines are long. Measure the shop, not the catalogue length.
When it is the wrong machine
If your work is sheet metal — enclosures, ductwork, panels — a combined machine is the wrong tool and a guillotine shear plus a press brake is the right one. This class earns its floor space in shops that cut structural sections and plate in piece lots. Theguillotine shear andCNC press brake pages cover the sheet metal side.
Ask about the combined punching and shearing machine
Send the part you need to bend and we will come back with a configuration and a quote.