Industrial tube bending refers to the metal bending and metal busbar machine that take place in industries and factories. There are different procedures which are employed to bend tubes. These could be form bending or freeform bending techniques or they could also be differentiated by the different temperature settings used to achieve this task.
There are a lot of things which need to be kept in mind while designing the different tube bending machines and while preparing the tubes for the process of tube bending. Importance is also given to the thickness of the metal tubes that are going to be inserted in the machines because once they are bent, the upper portion of the bent material, gets stretched and becomes thinner whereas the portion below the bend gets compressed, wrinkled and thinner when bending.
In a typical industrial tube bending process, the tube is loaded into the bending machinery. To load it, it has to be held by two dies, one of which is the clamping block and the other one is the forming die. Their names slightly indicate their functions. The clamping block firmly holds the tube in place; then the right amount of mechanical force is applied so that the metal tube starts to bend. During the bending process, the tube is pushed against that other dye, called a pressure die, to give it the shape which is intended.
There are many other tube bending processes that are used in the Industries. One other process involves simply pushing the tubes through rollers which then bend it into a modest curve. There are other processes, too, in which a mandrel is secured inside the tube. The mandrel is a metal ball or rod which is placed inside the tube to give it more strength when force is applied on it. This prevents the tube from creasing, or bending inside. The mandrel enables the tube to retain its firm roundness while also providing it a support from the inside so that it doesn’t break.
