Ram punch holder (intermediate and clamp) for press brakes: working height, load per metre and manual lever clamping
Press brake upper tooling interface · intermediates of 100–150 mm working height rated 1,000 or 1,600 kN/m, front clamps with lever and anti-fall nose, 32 bolts per changeover on a 10 ft ram
A ram punch holder, sold as an intermediate or punch adapter, is the block bolted under the upper beam (ram) of a press brake that receives the tang of the punch and clamps it with a front plate, by screw, lever or quick-release mechanism. A row of these holders sets the punch height, carries the bending load into the ram and determines how fast punches can be changed. Fix three things first: the punch tang style and working height, the load per metre the holder is rated for against the brake's tonnage, and how the clamp locks and releases the punch.
Upper tool holders for press brakes that are fitted under the ram: Promecam-style (R1) intermediates, punch adapters, front and rear clamps with screw, lever or retractable-lever operation, and mechanical quick clamps for segmented punches. Complete CNC hydraulic press brakes are covered on the Hydraulic press brake page, and thick-plate bending presses with their variable dies and crowning on the Heavy plate bending press page; swing-beam folders are covered on the Metal plate folding machine page. Lower die holders, hydraulic beam-length clamping systems as a machine option, and turret punch press tool holders are outside this page.
CNFX editorial research · Sources checked October 12, 2026 · 5 sources
Intermediate, front clamp and punch tang: the Promecam-style stack under the ram
Rolleri lists its R1-type intermediates by working height and material: 100, 120 and 150 mm in C45 steel, and 120 and 150 mm in 42CrMo4, with punch adapters for other ram styles (R2, R3, R4, R5, R8, R9, R10, RX and Weinbrenner types) from 60 to 150 mm working height. [1]
Rolleri states that every intermediate needs a clamp, offered as a manual screw clamp (ST50, ST60), a clamp with a lever (STL60) or one with a retractable lever (STX60). Clamps with 60 in the code carry an anti-fall nose: when the clamp screws are released the punch hangs and comes out only when the operator slides it sideways. Lever clamps can take a polyurethane insert to hold segmented punches. Its front and rear clamps for R1 upper tools are 150 mm long and made of Fe37 steel. [2]
Gontool, a Chinese tooling maker, lists eight quick-clamp models for upper tools and states that the load-bearing parts are high-frequency quench-hardened to a perpendicularity tolerance of ±0.02 mm and parallelism of ±0.02 mm; rubber pads on the inside of the lock plate are meant to stop segmented punches loosening or dropping. [4]
Editorial note: the working height of the intermediate adds directly to the shut height the punch occupies, so check the brake's open height and stroke with the tallest punch and holder combination planned.
Give the supplier the press brake make and ram style (Promecam/European R1, American, other), the punch tang type, required working height, the brake's tonnage and bed length, clamp operation (screw, lever, retractable lever, quick clamp), whether anti-fall retention is needed, and the number of holders for the full beam.
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1,000 or 1,600 kN/m per holder against 180–250 t/m beam-length holders
The holder's load rating is given per metre of bend length. Rolleri rates its C45 intermediates at 1,000 kN/m and its 42CrMo4 versions at 1,600 kN/m; WILA lists its pneumatic New Standard Pro holder for European Style I rams at 180 or 250 t/m shoulder load and its American Style holder with optional manual clamping at 230 t/m. [1][3]
Editorial calculation: at 9.807 kN per tonne-force, 1,000 kN/m is about 102 t/m and 1,600 kN/m about 163 t/m; WILA's 230 t/m is about 2,256 kN/m. A bend 2 m long needing 150 t, for example, puts 75 t/m on the holders, inside the C45 rating; the same force over 1 m (150 t/m) needs the 42CrMo4 version or a higher-rated holder. [1][3]
WILA's holders clamp tool segments from 10 mm in length, and its Safety-Click retention, which lets top tools be clicked in and out vertically, is integrated in top tools weighing up to 12.5 kg. [3] Editorial note: ask the supplier whether the stated rating is for load on the punch shoulders or on the clamped tang, since WILA states its figures as shoulder load.
Sixteen holders and 64 bolt actions: manual clamping against one-motion release
A patent filed in 2001 by Douglas Edmondson and Carl Stover describes conventional punch holders as intermediate spacers between the ram and the punches, each using two bolts to secure the punch with a clamp plate; a 10 ft machine uses sixteen of them, so releasing and re-securing a full set of punches can take 64 separate actions on 32 bolts. [5]
Their answer is a single actuator running along the ram that drives a wedge plate between the upper ends of pivoting clamps, so all clamps grip or release their punches with one mechanical motion; a second version moves a laterally acting plate by fluid pressure. [5] WILA's manual clamping for American Style tools uses a continuous body with clamping plates tightened by hand, and WILA notes that with this system the top tools are not seated automatically. [3]
Editorial calculation: a 10 ft ram is about 3.05 m, so sixteen holders give about 190 mm of ram per holder; Rolleri's R1 clamps are 150 mm long. [5][2] Editorial note: count the holders and clamp actions for your beam length when comparing screw clamps, lever clamps and quick clamps, and check whether the punch has to be seated by a light press stroke after clamping.
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Ram, punch and load data for a punch holder order
Paste it into your enquiry below or into an email to a maker, then replace every bracket.
Press brake: [make; model; tonnage; bed length; ram style]
Punch: [tang type; heights; segmented or full length; weight per segment]
Holder: [intermediate or adapter; working height; material; rated kN/m]
Clamp: [screw, lever, retractable lever or quick clamp; anti-fall nose; insert]
Quantity: [holders and clamps for full beam]
Documents: [hardness; tolerances; load rating basis]
Gontool's press brake tooling range includes eight quick-clamp models for segmented upper tools, with punch holders listed in the same press brake tooling range.
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Compiled and source-reviewed by the CNFX editorial team.
Each manufacturer above links to the page on that company's own website where the product is listed, with the date we checked it. How we source and review
· Page last updated 13 October 2026
Buyer questions
What load can a press brake intermediate take?
Rolleri rates its R1 intermediates at 1,000 kN/m in C45 and 1,600 kN/m in 42CrMo4 steel. [1]
What does an anti-fall nose on a punch clamp do?
On Rolleri clamps with 60 in the code, the punch hangs on the nose when the clamp is released and can only be removed by sliding it sideways. [2]
How many bolts are released to change punches on manual holders?
A patent describes sixteen holders with two bolts each on a 10 ft press brake, 32 bolts and up to 64 actions for a full change. [5]
How accurate are press brake quick clamps?
Gontool states ±0.02 mm perpendicularity and ±0.02 mm parallelism for its hardened clamp load-bearing parts. [4]
Sources and what still needs a direct check
Sources checked 2026-10-12. Rolleri, WILA and Gontool are tooling makers stating ratings for their own holders and clamps; the Edmondson and Stover patent describes conventional holders and a proposed one-motion clamp rather than a current product.
