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Fabricator reduces part handling, improves consistency with combination bender
Full Vision Inc., a manufacturer of components and equipment for the off-road industry, encountered a hurdle in manufacturing roll-over protection systems (ROPS) and falling-object protection structures (FOPS) for its customers. To make a ROPS or...
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Tube bending, the lean way
A Wisconsin tube bending shop takes an untraditional approach to the
traditional job schedule--and thrives because of it.
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Fabrication automation
Need help dealing with the skilled worker shortage? Eric Lundin, editor of TPJ-The Tube & Pipe Journal, interviewed several automated equipment manufacturers for their perspectives on automation for tube and pipe fabrication.
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Better tube bending
This article explains how to examine and alter loading, bending, unloading, and quality checking operations to improve overall bending cycle times.
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Assessing the arc
Large-radius bends are used in many places, such as appliance handles and automobile components. For measuring large-radius bends, fabricators have at least three options: go/no-go fixtures, entering the bent part’s measurements into a CAD...
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Using ultrasonic energy for drawing tube
In conventional metalforming operations, the main way to reduce friction between the tooling and the workpiece is to apply a lubricant. Another supplementary method, which has been used for decades, is to introduce ultrasonic energy to the...
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Fabricating antenna components
Mobile phone systems are mainly electronic, but a fabricated tube plays a critical role—known as a waveguide, this rectangular tube connects the transmitter to the antenna. Precise bending and forming are critical to manufacturing a waveguide...
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Hands-off tube finishing
Tube finishing doesn't have to be a manual operation. Centerless grinding can efficiently finish straight tube, and now planetary
grinding machines can aid the finishing of tubes of various shapes,including previously bent workpieces.
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Fabricator leaves its competitors in the dust
It wasn't that long ago that Joe Fabiani decided to make a custom exhaust system for his Porsche. A member of the Porsche Club of America (PCA) and racing enthusiast, he soon found himself making exhaust systems for fellow PCA members. That led to...
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Holding the dies
There are a few popular ways to affix the clamp die and pressure die to a rotary draw bending machine. All aim to accomplish the same thing: provide precise vertical alignment to the mating bend die and provide rigid support for the...
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The “hole” picture in laser tube cutting
Ace Metal Crafts installs a laser tube cutting system with integrated tapping, a system that has shown its strength when producing structural tube. The machine cuts tube shapes, laser cuts holes, and performs tapping all in one setup.
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Getting a grip on tube bending
A collet closer, commonly found on CNC or NC tube benders, serves an important role in the bending process. When quality is good, little attention is paid to its operation. When one or more quality parameters fall outside of acceptable...
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Yearning for learning
When James Castoro founded Custom Aluminum Products in 1960, the company’s premise was simple and concise: It produced aluminum products, mainly storm windows and storm doors. It was a good time to be in the business—the baby boom was in...
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GTAW electrode selection and preparation
Selecting the right tungsten electrode, and preparing it to match the welding process, aren't just good ideas to maximize welder productivity. They are necessary to prevent weld defects and all the time necessary for troubleshooting and rework.
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Tube, pipe cutting equipment—Part II
Lasers have been in use for industrial purposes for decades, and their capabilities continue to develop. Many machines these days can cut sheet and tubular sections, and fabricators are finding that the laser’s programmability really broadens...
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Ironing the wrinkles out of copper tubing
A wiper die is helpful for making wrinkle-free bends. Understanding how one works can help you decide if you need to use one.
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9 questions about tube bending software
Bending simulation software offers a way to improve workshop efficiency. It can save time and money as well as reduce the risk of accidents or damage.
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Get the slug out
Punching a hole in a tube is one thing; getting the slug out is something else altogether. Even if most of the slugs exit without a problem, the occasional hanging slug can cause a serious problem. Two methods are mechanical force and air pressure.
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Tube, pipe cutting equipment-Part 1
Tube and pipe cutting advancements include saws that are programmable to cope with varying cross sections and a variety of material hardnesses; a rotary axis for waterjet cutting; and automation.
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Tube bending with no straights? No problem
A Wisconsin tube shop invests in an unusual, freeform bending technology that can bend tube sections with no straight sections between bends. Different radii requires no tool changeouts or complex tooling setups. Instead, an operator changes the...
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All-electric, multisense tube benders enhance design freedom for OEMs, add flexibility for job shops
Challenged with shorter product life cycles and increased global competition, OEMs and job shops are looking for more flexible design and production equipment. All-electric, multisense tube benders are designed to meet their needs.
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The axis of safety
A tube bender can be considered a collection of power presses and, as such, it needs more than just a few conventional barriers between the operator and the machine. Safety mats, interlocked switches, emergency-stop switches, and interlocked side...
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Cold sawing turned inside out
Cold sawing, widely used for cutting tubes,
pipes, bars, and profiles for decades, has
evolved steadily over time through advances
in materials, coolants, coatings, tooth
forms, and cemented carbides. However, new
tube, pipe, bar, and profile...
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Feeding the process
Whether a bending process starts with a cut length of tubular product or a coil, gravitational or torsional forces can lead to unwanted variations in the finished product. In the case of gravity, tube supports can counteract it; for torsion,...
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Small components, big plans
Since its start as a supplier of a single fabricated item in 1936, Zeman Manufacturing Co. has expanded its fabricating services to include all manner of cutting, bending, end forming, and finishing processes. In response
to growing competition...
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Doing more with less
Loading and unloading tube for fabricating often is a manual process. Because labor rates in the U.S. are higher than those in many other countries, manual loading and unloading isn’t competitive. Using an automatic loader/unloader can change...
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Selecting the right mandrel and wiper
Tube bender operators could rely on complex mathematical formulas and rules of thumb, but it’s much quicker to use a tooling chart. This sort of chart lists the two main bending criteria, D of bend and wall factor, on the X and Y axis,...
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No need for annealing
Tube benders work with unannealed material and deliver better-performing products to customers.
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Making a workhorse run
Figure 1
The use of vertical compression benders became widespread in the 1950s. A primary application was forming automotive exhaust pipes in high volumes. Photo courtesy of Pines Technology.
Vertical compression tube benders have...
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Manufacturing motorcycle mufflers
Like all manufacturers, Woodsage Industries is always on the lookout for a better way to manufacture the many components it produces for OEMs. It recently devised a way to make one-piece external muffler shells for motorcycles and all-terrain...
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Shaping profits with a mandrel extractor
Using a mandrel is helpful for maintaining a tubes profile when bending. Without a mandrel, bending forces tend to distort and flatten tubular workpieces.
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Manufacturing motorcycle mufflers - Fabricator finds improvement with rotary swaging
Like all manufacturers, Woodsage Industries is always on the lookout for a better way to manufacture the many components it produces for OEMs. It recently devised a way to make one-piece external muffler shells for motorcycles and all-terrain...
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To think 'in tube'
A tube laser spurs a shop to think about design and metal fabrication in a new way.
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Bending nonround tubing
While bending round tube and pipe involves many variables and challenges, the difficulties in bending nonround shapes are more numerous and complicated. Among the most common shapes are square, rectangular, and oval (elliptical and flat-sided)....
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Making a 20-degree Marman bead
Two forming methods can make a bead for an airtight seal on a metal tube: rotary (spin) forming and progressive ram forming. Each has advantages and disadvantages in bead profile, cycle time, amount of wall thinning, and so on.
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Focusing on bent tubing
Measuring the bends and straight sections of a bent tube can be tricky and time-consuming, especially if the tube has a large number of bends in several directions. Photogrammetry, also known as optical measurement, uses a booth equipped with...
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Orbital welding technology breaks new ground
Automated orbital welding technology has evolved to the point where one welding system can perform multiple processes and adapt welding parameters in real-time.
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Teeing up orbital welding
Two technologies improve the quality and decrease the cost of fabricating high-purity systems, such as those used in the food and beverage, dairy, pharmaceutical, and semiconductor industries. These two techniques are mechanically formed T...
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Affordable automation
Competition is tough and getting tougher. A critical strategy for staying in business is automation. Putting together a flexible, automated system with quick-change capability can help tube fabricators manufacture a variety of parts, both for...
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Bending rolled steel sections
Bending tube or pipe successfully is a matter of managing a handful of processes and variables and controlling the flow of the metal. The same principles apply to bending profiles, or rolled steel sections (RSS). However, because profiles aren't...
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Designing an OCTG finishing floor for welded pipe
Although the energy market has seen ups and downs, overall the trend is a growth path. A manufacturer of welded structural and mechanical tube and pipe can get into this market by using its existing mill to manufacture oil country tubular goods...
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Saving money on complex tube end forms
"Cut costs, cut costs, cut costs" is a mantra that echoes from engineering cubicles to production floors in manufacturing companies far and wide.
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Titanium trends
Electricity demand grew an average of 15,000 megawatts per year from 1995 to 2006, and this trend will undoubtedly continue. The Energy Information Administration predicts that meeting future demands will require the equivalent of more than 20 new...
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Fabricator lassos an improved packing process
Ranch Hand Truck Accessories was established in the area in 1986 to produce truck grille guards, a product that still comprises a majority of the company's sales. A 25 percent increase in production of its grille guards and front bumper...
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Coax Facts
Continuous improvement and statistical process control are useful,time-tested techniques—they have been used since the 1950s—buttheir use must be tailored to specific applications. For example, atypical manufacturing metric is parts...
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The ins and outs of extrusion bending
Extrusions can be tricky to bend and handle. Paying close attention tobender selection, die design, programming, and material handling can help to ensure efficient and productive bending.
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Fact or Friction?
The tube and pipe bending process is full of variables and options, all of which you must understand and manage successfully to make the end product.
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Teaching an old piercing mill new tricks
Many seamless tube producers in North America use cross-roll piercing mills built in the 1950s that were based on designs from the1930s. While it would be advantageous to replace such aged equipment, that isn't always necessary. A minor equipment...
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Waste not, want not - Reducing scrap in bending tube, pipe
For many bending applications, it is common practice to determine the necessary length of tube, run a few samples, make some minor adjustments, and then start production runs. The problem is that the initial evaluation may have been based on safe,...
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Serpentine bending in production
Bending serpentine profiles—successive 180-degree bends, which typically are used in refrigeration systems—can be a challenge. By their nature, they tend to cause interference among the various bend dies, and they can be difficult to...
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