Hold the Brake!! You have 2 Amada Press Brakes in Operation!? Yes, we sure do! Bending sheet metal takes a lot of force, we have an 80 Ton and 50 Ton Press Brake in operation here at BraTek. The earliest powered Press Brakes made their appearance in the 1920’s, however the first brake was called the cornice brake patented in 1882 and manually bent metal in a straight line.