Press & Press Brake Protection

Photoelectric guards and laser protection systems for power presses and press brakes.

DKE-L3 Press Brake Laser Protection

Ram-mounted laser guarding that tracks the punch tip on press brakes and shears without blocking hand-fed work.

DQS Press Photoelectric Safety Guard

Type 4 press light curtain plus dedicated controller: dual relay outputs wire straight into your press circuit.

DQV Double-sided Photoelectric Safety Protection Device

Guards two hazardous machine sides at once with independent light-curtain sets and dual output channels.

Press Brake vs Punch Press: Two Different Guarding Problems

The question we hear most is why a press brake cannot simply take the same press brake light curtain that already guards the punch press next to it. The answer is in how the operator works. On a punch press or hydraulic press, the feed opening is fixed: nobody's hands belong inside it while the ram cycles, so a stationary curtain of infrared beams across that opening is exactly right. On a press brake, the operator is *part of the bending cycle* — they hold the sheet, follow it up as the material folds, and their fingers travel with the workpiece toward the tooling on every single part.

Put a fixed curtain in front of a press brake and one of two things happens: it trips on every legitimate hand movement until someone bypasses it, or it gets mounted so far away that it protects nothing. Neither outcome survives an audit. The bending machine needs protection that moves with the punch instead of standing in front of the operator — which is what a ram-tracking laser system does.

That single distinction sorts this whole category. Hand-fed bending: the DKE-L3 laser protection system. Fixed openings on power presses, shears and hydraulic presses: the DQS photoelectric guard with its dedicated controller. Machines with both a front and a rear opening: the DQV dual-zone system, one controller supervising two independent curtains.

Side view of a press brake operator hand-feeding sheet metal with a moving laser protection band under the punch, illustrating why fixed light curtains do not fit hand-fed bending — Hand-fed bending: the workpiece — and the hands holding it — must approach the tooling while the machine is armed.

Which of the Three Systems Fits Your Machine?

The three systems in this category do not compete with each other — each one exists for a machine geometry the other two handle badly. The table compares the published figures side by side.

Attribute	DKE-L3 (press brake)	DQS (press / hydraulic)	DQV (dual zone)
Guarding principle	3-beam laser band that travels with the ram	fixed curtain + dedicated controller	two independent curtains, one controller
Response time	5 ms	≤ 10 ms	≤ 10 ms
Resolution	10 mm	7 pitches: 10 / 14 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 40 / 80 mm	10 / 20 / 40 / 80 mm per side
Coverage	spans up to 15 m between brackets	protective height 50–2480 mm (4–32 beams)	up to 72 beams / 5680 mm combined
Safety output	dual OSSD + FA fast-approach enable	relay contacts AC250V / 5A from the controller	dual relay or dual transistor
Supply	12–24 VDC	sensors DC 12/24 V; controller AC 110–220 V	controller AC 110–220 V
Ingress protection	IP65	IP65	IP65

Comparison chart of DAIDISIKE DKE-L3 ram-tracking laser, DQS controller-based press light curtain and DQV dual-zone light curtain for press brake safety — Three guarding architectures — pick by machine geometry, not by price.

Not sure which of the three? Send the machine type, bed length and measured stopping time via the inquiry form — we reply with a model code, not a brochure.

Press Brake Laser Protection: How Ram-Tracking Guarding Works

The DKE-L3 mounts a transmitter and receiver on brackets bolted to the ram. Three parallel laser beams — E1, E2 and E3 — form a flat protective band directly beneath the punch, with E1 sitting just 3 mm below the tip. Because the brackets ride on the ram, that band keeps its 3 mm relationship to the punch through the entire stroke: the protection is always exactly where the pinch point is about to be, and nowhere else.

Beam height is 4.5 mm, adjustable inside a 15 mm window, so the band can be tuned to the tooling actually installed. The press brake safety laser logic includes an FA (fast-approach) enable: while the field below the punch is clear, the ram is allowed to close at high speed; the moment any beam is interrupted during the approach, the dual OSSD outputs drop and the ram stops within the system's 5 ms response plus the machine's own stopping time. Class-1 infrared operation around 780 nm means no special eyewear anywhere in the cell.

Alignment across long beds is the practical worry, and it is why the system spans up to 15 m with bracket geometry designed for repeatable re-mounting after tool changes.

Principle diagram of DKE-L3 press brake laser protection showing three beams E1 E2 E3 traveling with the ram, E1 positioned 3 mm below the punch tip — E1 rides 3 mm under the punch tip for the whole stroke — the guard moves, the operator's workflow doesn't change.

Guarding Power Presses and Hydraulic Presses with the DQS System

For fixed openings, the DQS pairs a Type-4-architecture curtain with its own controller, which is what makes it a complete hydraulic press guarding package rather than a bare sensor: the controller's force-guided relay contacts (AC250V / 5A) wire straight into the press control circuit, and selected controller versions add EDM monitoring of the machine contactors.

The controller family covers both retrofit and OEM builds. DQSW and DQSS are stand-alone boxes for adding protection to presses already on the floor; DQSN and DQSP are panel-mount versions for building into new machine cabinets. Output configuration is ordered by code — OC (1 NO + 1 NC), 2C (two NC) or 2O (two NO) — and detection distance is coded from class A (0.3–3 m) up to class H (0.3–40 m), so one series covers a bench press and a forty-meter transfer line alike.

Resolution and protective height come from the pitch-and-beam-count matrix below: seven pitches from 10 to 80 mm, four to thirty-two beams, protective heights from 50 mm to 2480 mm.

DQS selection map: seven beam pitches from 10 to 80 mm across 4 to 32 beams giving protective heights from 50 to 2480 mm, with model code example DQS06/10-50 — Model code example: DQS06/10-50 = 6 beams × 10 mm pitch, 50 mm protective height.

The Mounting Distance Comes From Your Machine's Stopping Time

No guarding system on this page has a fixed "correct" mounting distance, because the minimum distance is a property of *your machine*, not of the sensor: it grows with the total time the press takes to actually stop after the output drops. A press with a tired brake needs the curtain further out than an identical press with a fresh one. That is why every serious press brake safety installation starts with a measured stopping time, and why we ask for that number in the inquiry rather than publishing a one-size answer.

The practical sequence is short: measure the stopping time at the working stroke, add the guard's response (5 ms for DKE-L3, ≤ 10 ms for DQS/DQV), and derive the distance from the approach-speed formula in the machine-safety standards. Our factory news article on press and press brake guarding walks through a real installation with the arithmetic laid out.

For pin-level output wiring — OSSD polarity, relay loop details, reset circuits — the DAIDISIKE engineering library on fsddsk.com maintains the full diagram set for every output type we ship.

What We Publish — and What to Ask the Factory For

Every number above comes from the published series data, and the model tables on the three product pages list the ordering codes in full. Two things we deliberately do not print here: performance-level certificates (PL / functional-safety documentation is supplied per order, with the paperwork matched to the exact configuration shipped) and stopping-time-dependent mounting distances, which are meaningless without your measurement. If a spec you need is missing from a product page, that is a data gap we flag honestly rather than a number we invent — ask, and the factory answers with documents.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use a standard safety light curtain on a press brake?

Usually not. The operator must hold the sheet and follow it toward the tooling on every part, so a fixed curtain across the front either trips constantly or is mounted too far away to protect anything. Hand-fed press brakes take the ram-tracking DKE-L3 laser system; fixed-opening presses and shears take the DQS or DQV curtain systems.

What is the difference between a press brake laser guard and a press light curtain?

The laser guard travels with the ram — three beams, the first one 3 mm under the punch tip, 5 ms response, 10 mm resolution. A press light curtain covers a fixed opening — pitches from 10 to 80 mm, protective heights to 2480 mm, and a dedicated controller whose relay contacts wire into the press circuit.

Do these systems include the safety relay?

DQS and DQV ship with their controller, so the safety-rated switching is built in. DKE-L3 outputs dual OSSD signals and is evaluated by a safety relay module — the DA31 or DQSRN are the matching parts from our own catalogue.

How do I choose between DQSW, DQSS, DQSN and DQSP controllers?

W and S versions are stand-alone boxes for retrofitting presses already in service; N and P versions are panel-mount for OEM cabinets. Output codes: OC = 1 NO + 1 NC, 2C = two NC, 2O = two NO contacts.

What should I send to get an accurate quote?

Machine type (press brake, punch press, shear or hydraulic press), bed length or opening width × height, the resolution class you need, and the measured stopping time. The stopping time decides the mounting distance and often the model — it is the one number no catalogue can supply for you.

Press & Press Brake Protection in Action — 5 Demonstration Videos

Wiring, setup and live operation filmed on the actual modules. Each clip links back to the series it demonstrates, so you can go straight from footage to specification.