Eagle supplies pipe bending equipment for nuclear application

November 6, 2007

Eagle Precision Technologies Ltd., Brantford, Ont., a designer and manufacturer of tube bending and end forming products, recently supplied equipment for a nuclear application. The company provided a 5-in.-capacity, multiradius bender; a heavy-duty rotary swager; and all of the associated tooling for the manufacture of reactor feeder tubes for the refurbishment of a nuclear power plant.

The bending application required compliance to less than 7 percent ovality and 12 percent wall thinning on a 1.2D CLR bend. The bending machine was designed for rigidity and to handle heavy-wall Sch. 80 pipes 30 ft. long and up to 3.5 in. dia., while allowing multiple-radii and compound bends with minimal tool changeover.

Utilizing Eagle's swaging technology, the rotary swager uses hydraulic pulsation of tooling to uniformly reduce heavy-wall pipe sections without any tool marking to allow the pipes of the feeder portion of the reactor to be assembled to each other. The machine has a smaller footprint and produces less noise than traditional hammer-type swage machines, the company reports.