Tube Forming Machines

Tube Forming Machines

Tube forming machines encompass a wide range of equipment designed to shape and modify tubing into intricate and precise configurations. The process of tube forming involves altering the structure of tubing to achieve complex geometries tailored to specific applications. A tube is characterized as a long, slender, hollow cylinder commonly utilized for transporting fluids or gases, or serving as a conduit for various purposes. While tubes are traditionally cylindrical, they can also be shaped into square or rectangular forms, depending on the requirements of the intended application.

Uses of Tube Forming Machines

Tube forming is distinct from tube fabrication, which refers to the initial manufacturing of tubing, and is considered a secondary process that refines and customizes tubes for specific applications. Due to the complexity of the shapes required, tube forming machines must maintain an exceptional level of accuracy. To achieve this precision, these machines are typically designed as either dedicated machines or automated manufacturing cells. Dedicated machines are engineered for a specific task, making them highly specialized but incapable of accommodating design changes. In contrast, automated manufacturing cells offer both high production rates and adaptability, allowing for greater design flexibility.

Tube forming machinery serves a wide range of industries and applications. In the marine sector, these machines are essential for producing exhaust components, heat exchangers, and piping systems. The automotive industry relies on tube forming for structural components, coolant systems, and exhaust manifolds. In industrial manufacturing, tube forming plays a critical role in automation equipment and tubing assemblies. The medical field depends on these machines for the production of highly complex components, including glass capillary tubes, epidural needles, and arthroscopic drivers.

Tube Forming Machine Images, Diagrams and Visual Concepts

Tube Forming Machines Types

Bending Machines

CNC machines designed to bend metal tubes with precision and efficiency. Also known as tube bending equipment or tube benders, these machines are essential for curving and twisting tube lengths to meet specific design requirements. The bending process varies depending on the application, with common methods including rotary, mandrel, and roll bending, each chosen for its ability to achieve precise angles and shapes.

CNC Machining
A vital component in the draw bending process, CNC machining ensures quick, reliable, and highly accurate bends. This technology is known for its flexibility and ability to produce repeatable, high-quality results. With user-friendly programming and setup, CNC machines allow for detailed specifications to be entered into the system, making it possible to execute complex bending geometries with efficiency and consistency.

Coining
A tube forming process that utilizes custom tooling and dies to flatten the tubing. Through the controlled application of force, coining machines shape tube ends with precision, achieving specific angles or radii. By adjusting the tooling design, coining allows for the accurate formation of corners and edges, ensuring uniformity in tube fabrication.

Hydroforming
A process that uses fluid pressure to form tubes into complex shapes while maintaining uniform thickness. By pressing the tube against a die, hydroforming enables extreme deformation without compromising structural integrity. Although not exclusively a tube forming method, hydroforming plays a critical role in shaping tubes for applications requiring intricate contours and high strength. This process is widely utilized due to its ability to produce seamless components with consistent wall thickness.

Nitinol Heat
A specialized technique used for shaping nickel-titanium alloys, which are composed of 50% nickel and 50% titanium. Nitinol heat setting involves forcing the tubing through a die into the desired form, followed by multiple cycles of high-temperature baking to establish a permanent shape. This process enhances the material’s shape memory properties, making it ideal for applications requiring flexibility and resilience.

Pipe Benders
Machinery designed to shape pipes into various configurations, primarily forming bends between 2º and 90º under standard conditions. Pipe benders ensure precision in achieving smooth, consistent angles, making them an essential tool in industries that require customized piping solutions.

Swaging Machines
Equipment that utilizes high pressure to permanently join tubes. Tube swaging machines, often referred to simply as swaging machines, achieve this by pressing tubes into dies or applying extreme force to reshape the material. Unlike many metalworking techniques that rely on heat, swaging is primarily a cold-forming process, preserving the tube’s structural properties while achieving a secure connection.

Threading Process
The method of forming raised helical ribs along the end of a tube to facilitate connections with other threaded components. Threading can be performed by either rotating the tube while keeping the machinery stationary or vice versa. This precision-driven process ensures a secure and standardized fit, allowing for reliable assembly in a variety of applications.

Tube Benders
Machines designed to shape tubing according to specified angles, typically ranging from 2º to 90º. Tube bending equipment encompasses a broad category of machines that bend, swag, and form tubes to meet the demands of various industries. These machines are essential for creating structural components that require customized bends and contours.

 

Tube Cutting
A crucial step in the tube forming process that involves precisely cutting tubing or piping to the desired length. Also known as tube cutters, these machines ensure a clean, burr-free cut, producing square or circular ends with minimal deformation. Tube cutting requires careful control of pressure to prevent unwanted distortion, ensuring each section meets the necessary specifications. This process is vital for applications where accurate tube lengths and smooth edges are essential.

Tube Forming Equipment
A broad category of machines designed to shape and manufacture various types of tubing products. Tube forming equipment facilitates the production of tubes using multiple methods, including roll forming and hydroforming. These machines play a key role in industries that demand custom-shaped tubing for specialized applications.

 

Tube End Forming
A precise process that modifies the end of a tube to meet exacting specifications for specific applications. Tube end forming machines are used to increase or decrease tube diameter, producing specialized end shapes required for secure connections. These machines perform a variety of functions, including end reduction, flanging, chamfering, expansion, roll beading, notching, and flaring. One specific end forming technique, tube flaring, shapes the tube’s end into a funnel-like form, allowing it to be held securely by threaded fittings.

 

Tube Machinery
A broad classification of equipment involved in the shaping and forming of tubes. Tube machinery includes an array of machines designed to alter tubing into complex configurations, making it an integral part of various manufacturing and industrial processes.

Tube Mills
A type of tube forming machinery that continuously roll forms metal strips until their edges meet at a weld station. Tube mills, also known as tube rollers, create tubing and piping by processing continuous metal strips through a series of rollers. This method ensures uniformity and precision, making tube mills essential for the large-scale production of high-quality tubing products.

 

Tube Notchers
Machines that create notches—vee-shaped indentations—in tubing or pipe. Notching is a critical step in tube fabrication, as it allows for precise connections and secure joints. Tube notchers play an essential role in preparing tubing for welding, assembly, and various structural applications.

Tubing Rollers
Also referred to as tube rollers, these machines shape tubes and pipes by gradually bending them into specified angles, typically up to 90º. Unlike tube benders, tubing rollers focus on rolling metal strips into tubular forms, producing a range of tubing diameters. Tube rollers are commonly used in applications requiring large or small diameter tubing and are instrumental in achieving smooth, consistent bends.

 

 

Tube Forming Machines Terms

Ampco
An aluminum-bronze wear surface specifically used for mandrels and wiper dies when bending stainless steel.

Ball
A component within the mandrel assembly that supports the arc of a tube bend, preventing flattening after it passes through the bending point.

Bend Data
The fundamental motion elements that must be programmed into a CNC tube-bending machine controller to ensure accurate tube bending.

Bend Die
Also referred to as the "bend form" or "radius die," this is the primary tool in a rotary-draw tube-bending machine. The tube is placed against it and drawn around to create the desired bend.

Bend Radius
A general term referring to the curvature of a tube bend. It does not specifically define the radius but can indicate the inside radius, centerline radius, or another reference point, typically measured from the centerline.

Bender
A mechanical device designed to create bends or arcs in straight material. The term "bender" can also refer to a company that provides tube bending services.

“C” Style Tooling
A type of drop-in segmented tooling that consists of either a set of dies that only reduce or fingers that only expand.

Cold Drawing
A tube bending process performed without heat, used to achieve a smooth surface finish, reduce wall thickness or outside diameter, and obtain tighter tolerances.

Crush Bending
A non-mandrel tube bending process where the tube is stretched over a crush knob in the bend die cavity. This technique eliminates wrinkling or buckling that could occur without a mandrel and is commonly used for non-round tube bends.

Degree of Bend (DOB)
Also known as the "angle," this is the measurement indicating how far a tube is bent.

Drop-in Style I/O Segmented Tooling
A self-contained barrel system featuring six- or eight-segment dies and fingers. These can be easily dropped into or removed from a machine for a quick tool change. The dies close on the outside of the tube, while the fingers remain open on the inside.

“E” Style Tooling
A ram forming tooling system composed of clamping dies and ram tools. The clamping dies secure the tube in place during the forming cycle.

Elongation
The percentage increase in a material's length during the bending process.

Hot Bending
Any tube forming process that involves the application of heat.

Inside Diameter (I.D.)
The internal measurement of a tube’s diameter.

Mandrel
A component in the tube-bending assembly that provides internal support to prevent buckling or necking. If the tube wall is sufficiently thick, a mandrel may not be required.

Outside Diameter (O.D.)
The external measurement of a tube’s diameter.

Plug Drawing
A cold finishing technique that creates a precise outside diameter and wall thickness. The process involves drawing a tube through a die while it is supported by a plug.

Press Bending
A cost-effective and rapid bending method suitable for applications where the tube walls are relatively thick and the centerline radius is large. Because mandrel or wiper tooling cannot be used, press bending generally results in lower bend quality.

Ram Bending
A method where a tube is placed in a die, and a hydraulic ram—containing half of the dies—presses into the tube, pushing it around the desired radius.

Roll Bending
A fast and efficient bending technique where a tube is fed through a triangular arrangement of rollers. This process is ideal for forming extremely thick-walled tubes and large radii that exceed the capabilities of rotary draw benders.

Rotary Draw Bending
A fundamental tube bending method in which the tube is drawn around a rotating bend form or die. The forward tangent rotates while the back tangent is secured by a pressure die, allowing the use of mandrel and wiper tooling.

Sink Drawing
A cold finishing operation where a tube is pulled through a die without the use of a mandrel. This process is employed to achieve precise diameters and improve the tube’s mechanical properties.

Sizing
The process of shaping the end of a tube to meet specific roundness and concentricity requirements.

Springback
The tendency of a tube to return toward its original shape after the bending stress is removed. To compensate, tubes are often bent slightly beyond the desired Degree of Bend (DOB) to achieve the correct final angle.

Tangent
The excess material extending beyond the arc or bend of a tube. This section is typically trimmed off after the bending process.

Tube Flaring
An end-forming technique that expands the tube’s end into a funnel shape, allowing it to be securely held by a threaded fitting.

Wall
The thickness of a tube or pipe wall, typically specified as either "nominal" or "minimum" wall thickness.

Wiper Die
Also called "shoes," this tool prevents tube wrinkling during bending. It is particularly necessary when the tube has high resistance to compression.

Wrinkle
An unwanted fold, crease, or ripple that may develop on a tube’s surface during the bending process.