Pipe and tube bending does a lot more for us than help operate our home plumbing systems. Tubes are found in everything, from cars and commercial airplanes to everyday objects like chairs and clothes hangers. When these items are created, they are bent to specific shapes according to very exact tube bending calculations. For example, the metal legs on a chair are shaped and bent by machines in order to ensure that they are the proper shape and angle in order to support a person’s weight and match the other chairs.
Precision tube bending applications, which may rely on different types of tube bending equipment and strategies, are used to ensure several different aspects of the tube bending process. Uniformity, functionality, and quality are all equally important when it comes to manufacturing, and those goals are no different in a precision tube bending shop. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why these ideas are important and what they have to do with tube bending.
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1. Uniformity: In mass production, objects need to look the same, even if they aren’t manufactured in the same place. For example, if you are an employer who purchases work uniforms for your employees, you’ll want them to all look the same, even if you had to buy those outfits at different times for new staff members. The same goes for tube bending. Parts for plumbing or automotive tubing must be the same in order to work in any location. As a result, the tube bending procedure to form these parts must be exact no matter where you receive your parts from, and it will often employ programmable CNC tube bending machines to complete jobs with perfect accuracy.
2. Functionality: Take the example of a chair with metal legs again. Something like this is a good example of tube bending’s everyday applications. The legs of the chair must not only meet uniform standards for all chairs, but they need to bent at the correct angles in order to keep the chair working. A chair with an incorrectly shaped leg could be wobbly, or if a chair wasn’t formed with a proper tube forming techniques, then the leg could break and collapse. The same is true of aerospace piping. A jet or shuttle would not be able to carry fuel from one part to another if the tubes are incorrectly formed or easy to break.
3. Quality: Finally, quality is also essential in manufacturing and especially for tube forming. When parts are uniform and properly manufactured, they work well and do what they’re supposed to do. Precision tube bending, which may involve custom tube bending orders, sets out to do this, as well. A tube bending shop must know which materials can be formed and bent on certain types of tube bending equipment, how much pressure can be applied, what sorts of dies to use, whether or not to apply heat, and other aspects of the tube forming process.
If you wonder about the standards of your tube bending shop, ask them how they perform quality control on their products. If you have your own tube bending equipment, make sure to talk with the manufacturer to ensure that the machinery is being used properly. Have more questions about the tube bending process? Talk to a manufacturer of tube bending machinery, or leave a comment below.