T&T Tubecraft's new Unison machine, bending 130 mm diameter, 2 mm wall thickness 316 stainless steel tube.
Tube manipulation and pipe bending subcontract business T&T Tubecraft has taken delivery of a new all-electric 130 mm diameter multi-stack CNC tube bending machine from Unison Ltd. This is the third Unison tube bender to be purchased by T&T Tubecraft since 2014. It joins a 50 mm Unison Breeze machine and a 100 mm Unison Breeze multi-stack model that are in daily use at T&T Tubecraft's facility.
"Of all our tube benders, our 100 mm Unison machine is easily the busiest," said T&T Tubecraft Managing Director Ross Turner. "This is largely down to its user-friendly programming, fast tool changes, automatic set-up and uncompromising levels of accuracy and repeatability. Ironically, when we purchased the 100 mm Unison machine back in 2015, we did not have a vast amount of work for it. This quickly changed, however, as we gained the ability to take on new projects. The new 130 mm machine will increase our capability even further, both in terms of capacity and the ability to tender for an even greater range of projects. We expect it to be of particular interest to customers in the aerospace sector."
The bigger brother of the Unison 100 mm multi-stack machine, the Unison 130 mm tube bender purchased by T&T Tubecraft is particularly suited to bending exotic alloys such as titanium and Inconel, as well as Super-Duplex stainless steels. Able to push bend tubes of up to 6.2 meters in length when in standard mode, it also features a hitch-feed facility, whereby the machine carriage retracts by the length of the next feed, enabling mandrel bending of tubes of up to 8.7 meters long.
Multi-stack toolholding allows complex parts to be formed in one uninterrupted manufacturing cycle, while Unison's bar code scanning system ensures that only the correct tools are installed while also configuring the machine automatically. A further feature is the standard-fit rise and fall pressure die. This can result in savings in tooling costs and allows tools of different radii to be used on a part within a cycle. T&T Tubecraft's new 130 mm machine is also highly powerful. "This is a significant advantage for us, because it provides the reassurance to achieve high quality thin wall bending, even on high yield-strength alloys such as Inconel," said Turner.
The 130 mm machine has been networked to T&T Tubecraft's CAD technology and a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) for verifying bend accuracy and design conformity. The tube bender can be programmed manually or from CAD data using industry-standard IGES or STEP files, while data obtained by the CMM from the first manufactured part can be used to make automatic adjustments to the machine prior to commencing a manufacturing cycle.
"The all-electric architecture and automated Unibend software-controlled set-up of our Unison machines offer major advantages over hydraulic machines," said Turner. "Bending accuracy and repeatability are dramatically improved. We achieve right-first-time manufacturing for repeat sub-contract work and typically expect even the first bent trial component at the start of a project to be very close to what we are looking to achieve. Machine configuration is also rapid, typically only taking 15 to 20 minutes. Unison's Unibend operating software is exceptionally intuitive, meaning much faster programming and accelerated training for new staff members."
For more information contact:
Unison Tube LLC
500 Cane Creek Pkwy.
Ringgold, VA 24586
828-633-3189
sales@unisonltd.com
www.unisonltd.com