Author: Marta Varone

Leading seat manufacturer chooses Unison tube bending technology

A bespoke Unison Twin Head All Electric CNC Bending Machine continues to outperform for the seat manufacturing firm, The Freedman Seating Company, expanding manufacturing capacity at its plant in Chicago. The Freedman Seating Company engineer and manufacture seats and seating related products for many different applications. Their product lines include bus, rail, marine, delivery truck, specialty and commercial vehicle seating.

Freedman’s decision to search for a new tube bending machine was driven mainly by the nature of their seat products including formed seat frames. The company wanted to replace their old hydraulic tube bender and its outdated software with state-of-the-art bending capabilities. They needed a tube bending solution that would reduce time-consuming set up, increase reliability and repeatability, and increase productivity. The Freedman Company needed to upgrade to an all-electric CNC tube bender to achieve their goals. The all-electric architecture provides significant benefits: a rapid and repeatable software-based set-up, lower energy consumption and reduced noise compared with traditional hydraulically powered bending machinery. In addition to this, they sought a tube bending solution that had user-friendly software, was easy to program and offered 3D-simulation to improve accuracy and bend speed. To further optimize their process, Freedman needed a machine that could perform multiple bends at the same time.

Unison was one of the few manufacturers of all-electric, twin head, state of the art tube bending equipment. They designed and built a bespoke tube bending machine to meet The Freedman Seating Company’s specific needs and expectations. The Unison twin head bender software allows The Freedman Company to design complex tube shapes without generating cut off waste and enables them to double their productivity by using twin head bending technology. The fully automated tube bender with auto material loading and seam detection sensors also reduces material handling. Compared to hydraulically-powered bending machines, the all-electric architecture of Unison’s twin-head benders provides users with major cost-saving advantages. In addition to easier functional integration, faster setup and more readily achievable bending consistency, the machines use considerably less energy. Significant power is only consumed during the bending operations, whereas hydraulic benders normally require the oil pump to maintain a pressure reserve, wasting energy. Tests conducted by Unison show that during bending operations, a twin-head all-electric machine only uses about 10 percent of the electricity needed by a comparable hydraulic bending machine. Further energy savings are also realised, because it is standard practice to heat or cool hydraulic oil to ensure bending consistency. Despite their popularity, twin-head bending machines are only produced by a handful of manufacturers, and most are large hydraulically-powered systems. Unison takes a different design approach: its twin-head bending machines have an ‘all-electric’ architecture, with all motion axes controlled by servomotors. The standard machine configuration comprises two separate bending heads supported on independent ball screw driven linear carriages. A fifth axis controls a compact and fast actuating tube ‘centre grip and rotate’ unit, which can be mounted in a fixed position between the two heads or removed from the machine. The flexibility of this design facilitates production of either 2-D or 3-D parts and accommodates both symmetrical and asymmetrical parts.

The servomotor-driven centre grip and rotate unit is exceptionally compact and designed specifically to combine ease and speed of loading/unloading with a highly secure grip. It has an extremely narrow profile, allowing very close approach of the two bending heads.

ALPHA 80 HYBRID

The HYBRID bending machines merge the technology used in the three rolls benders with the ones of the tube benders.

The ALPHA series machines integrate new technologies and, thanks to the numerical control CNCi and the WINTAU CAD CAM software, allow to import CAD drawings and to translate them into compatible software In this way the three rolls bending has no more limit on the radii and, with the internal cores, avoids any problem of tubes collapse during the bending, also with very tight radii.

The application are numerous, especially when the shape foresees very wide together with very tight radii, as in the realization of cabins for earth movement machines and buses. The technology innovation nowadays available allow to simplify these operations, transforming a straight tube in a bent frame on the base of a drawing in a few seconds with an interpolation program that makes them perfectly equal and symmetric.

WIDENING THE BENDING SYSTEMS FOR OBTAINING NARROWER BENDS
SMI shoots on the market e new cartridge: the MAGNUM technology

SMI s.r.l. Sistemi Meccanici Industriali manufactures since 1978 a vast range of automatic, PLC and CNC controlled machinery and equipment for working every kind of tubes & pipes, in various diameters and thicknesses, mainly in automatic cycle starting from coil.
The bending lines – without mandrel – of the SILVER series are well-known and spread around the world. They maintained into the years their recognized stability & robustness and at the same time they developed themselves in terms of flexibility and versatility, following the new bending challenges of the market while keeping a watchful eye on the future.

SMI is constantly seeking for new solutions and the most recent example is indeed the Magnum SILVER.
The Magnum adopts an innovative “all in one” bending head that – thanks to its 8 controlled axis – permits to use three different bending systems:

This special bending head permits to reach close shapes (typically spirals) with touching bends, one on the other, tube on tube.
The Magnum’s power and strength make it especially suitable for processing ferrous materials with thick thickness, tubes with small straight parts, bends without lubrication and many other options, thanks to its unique without mandrel bending system.

The axis interpolation gives to the machine many economic benefits which are conspicuous for the utilizer who can change the bending method according to the product to be process, giving a short payback to the investment.

The main advantages of the Magnum technology are:

• Calibration and straightening of many tube diameters, all equipped on the revoler group (GRR)
• QCS – Quick Changeover SystemsPatented orbital cutting system
• Feeding clamp synchronized with the bending clamp for traction bending of ferrous materials with thick thickness.
• Counter bending system by traction and compression clamp with “0” obstructions
• Bending arm L. 1400 mm.
• Innovative system for discharging the bending power on the arm.
• Minimal lubrication, deactivable if not required.
• Macchine ready for 4.0 Industry

Tube processing starting from coil is a process offering various advantages, if there are production systems able to exploit them with automatic and complete processes.

Processing of tubes starting from coil offers important advantages: lower cost of raw material, less space to store it, simplified logistic management of semi-finished products and remarkable reduction of material scraps due to machining mode. For these reasons, processing from coil has become the standard in many sectors and BLM GROUP offers various solutions able to meet specific needs.

It is always about automatic systems able to carry out complete production processes that include straightening, facing, end-forming of the free end, bending and final cutting. Systems that neatly unload the finished part and that can therefore be easily integrated with other systems downstream for subsequent machining, typically end-forming of the unmachined end from previous processes, performed with an E-SHAPE or E-FORM system.

The distinguishing feature of these processes is the type of bend to be carried out, with or without mandrel. Bending without mandrel is carried out by the compact systems of the 4-RUNNER family that gather all the operations in a single machine tool, from straightening to bending. Bending with mandrel starting from coil, is not an easy subject to face. BLM GROUP proposes an integrated solution that joins the two systems in an automatic production cell able to carry out all machining operations, high quality bending with mandrel included. 3-RUNNER feeds the tube from coil, carries out straightening and end-forming at one end and cuts the tube, then the semi-finished part is neatly deposited on the automatic loader of the SMART that carries out bending with mandrel.

4-RUNNER

Straightening, end-forming, bending and cutting, four operations in a single machine tool. 4-RUNNER is a system for bending and end-forming from coil, all electric, with end-forming module up to six passes, right-hand and left-hand bending in-process, including the possibility to have a variable radius and an orbital outer cut module, managed by controlled axes or by disc.
To fully meet all needs there are two different versions available: 4-RUNNER H1 and 4-RUNNER H3.

4-RUNNER H1 works with tubes of diameter up to 12.7 mm. In-process right-hand/left-hand bending, flexion, multi-radius or variable radius. Bending head dimensions are extremely reduced and make this system particularly suitable for producing complex components such as flat and 3D serpentines used in the automotive, cooling, air conditioning and heating sectors.
4-RUNNER H3 can machine tubes up to 22 mm diameter and it is particularly fit to produce components for fluid transport systems. Thanks to the possibility to carry out flexion or stretch bending, bending speed can be combined with the possibility to create very short sections and this makes the system very flexible and highly productive.

3-RUNNER + SMART

The bending process from coil with mandrel requires the integration of two different systems: 3-RUNNER that feeds the tube from coil, then carries out straightening, end-forming and cutting; SMART that carries out quality bending with mandrel. The automatic loader of the SMART allows to fully automatize the process that generates a part bent and formed at one end.
At Tube & Wire 2018 it will be possible to see another end-forming pass of the unmachined end by means of an E-SHAPE system.

3-RUNNER is the multi-function machining center that uses a tube from coil up to 28.7 mm diameter, carries out straightening, end-forming and cutting at length. 3-Runner implements the concepts already tried out on the 4-Runner system: coil straightening and managing system, end-forming unit with up to six passes, all-electric orbital cutting unit. At the end of machining, 3-RUNNER deposits the semi-finished part on the automatic loader of the SMART tube bending machine that carries out quality bending with mandrel and neatly unloads the finished part.
SMART is a bending system for tubes up to 28.6 mm, specifically suitable for integration into an automatized cell, thanks to the patented head swinging system that facilitates automatic loading and unloading operations. For the rest, it is a complete bending system, all-electric, able to carry out right-hand and left-hand bending in-process, multi-radius, with fixed or variable radius.

UNIVERSAL HORIZONTAL PRESSES P170-P320-P400-P620

They are called universal because their tools may be simply and quickly changed thanks to three helicoidal anchoring pins. These machines can be used for various kinds of machining on different materials such as iron, steel, copper and aluminium. The APOLLO horizontal presses are hydraulically operated; four different models comprising the 17-32-40-and 62 tons are available and can work both manually or with N.C..

The self-lubricating cylinder is located on the same axes as the working arm and allows to make full use of the hydraulic strength emitted. A driven-pump self-lubricating system, protecting slides from dust and slags with gaskets, makes the machine all the more reliable, the strong bases of the universal presses are heat-stabilised to prevent strains over time and subsequent clearances in the guides unit. The presses “Apollo” can be used to bend, mould, create boxes, curve tubes and flat bars and to perform many workings in the field of punching.

They can fit in automated processes, they may be connected to an N.C. feeder and to a motorized side length stop, that can be programmed by a keyboard. If the presses are equipped with the “Speedy” they become a semi-automatic system for series production, featuring profitable applications in the field of punching on different materials.

Recently, Apollo has engineered and manufactured a series of tools for processing copper bars, since they are widely requested on the market for their multiple uses in the manufacturing of electric panels and photovoltaic systems.

Our customers have interest in buying the machines “Apollo” because we are a reliable company on the market for over 40 years now and we manufacture reliable machines making use of innovative cutting-edge technologies.