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New Precision Tube Bending System Lowers Costs

All-electric tube bending machines from Unison are designed to dramatically lower the costs of CNC precision tube bending.

Posted: September 15, 2015

All-electric tube bending machines from Unison are capable of bending tubes and pipes up to 10 in diameter. These machines can be equipped with a unique laser-based springback correction system that accurately measures bend angles as they are produced and automatically applies any necessary correction to compensate for the tendency of tubes to spring back slightly after being bent.

Ideal for producing prototypes, repair or reverse engineering, or high-precision tubular parts in low volumes, the unique EvBend tube bender from Unison greatly reduces the entry costs to precision CNC-controlled rotary draw tube bending. It uses manual operations to feed and rotate tubing and apply bending force, but employs smart CNC-controlled braking on the carriage feed, rotation and bend arm axes to ensure part shapes are formed with the highest accuracy.

In Booth N-2055, tube bending machine innovator Unison (Asheville, NC) will demonstrate the right-first-time capability of all-electric machines and show a novel new machine architecture designed to dramatically lower the costs of CNC precision tube bending. Right-first-time, scrap-free production demonstrations will be given on a machine capable of bending tube diameters up to 4 in. In addition to the benefits of software-controlled set-up and servomotor-powered bending precision in an all-electric architecture, the demonstration machine is equipped with a unique laser-based springback correction system that accurately measures bend angles as they are produced and automatically applies any necessary correction to compensate for the tendency of tubes to spring back slightly after being bent.

A key message from Unison at the show is the that all-electric tube bending machines are now available for much larger sizes, including tube and pipe diameters up to 10 in. “We pioneered all-electric tube bending machines back in the 1990s and we are now able to make economic servo-powered bending machines for much larger pipe diameters,” explained Stuart Singleton, the vice president of sales at Unison. “This opens up major new efficiencies for shops in areas including shipbuilding and processing plants by allowing them to replace older hydraulically-powered benders with state-of-the-art software-controlled machines.”

Another major attraction is the unique, manually powered EvBend tube bender that greatly reduces the entry costs to precision rotary draw tube bending. It uses manual operations to feed and rotate tubing and apply bending force, but employs smart CNC-controlled braking on the carriage feed, rotation and bend arm axes to ensure part shapes are formed with the highest accuracy. The EvBend 1000 is believed to be the simplest high precision CNC tube bending solution available today for small-diameter tubing up to 22 mm. It is currently being used by well over 100 companies, from general fabricators to aerospace and motorsports manufacturers. A larger version of this machine has been recently introduced that extends the manual operational principle by providing some servo-based power assistance to allow bending of tube diameters up to 2 in.

“The EvBend concept is ideal for producing high-precision tubular parts in low volume production environments,” added Singleton. “Among the key markets for this bending machine are small-batch production needs, as well as prototyping, repair or reverse engineering requirements.”

Unison, 28 Schenck Parkway, Suite 200, Asheville, NC 28803, 828-771 0850, www.unisonltd.com.