The Importance of a Tube Bender in a Fabrication Workshop

Bending tubing and piping are useful in several applications such as setting up pipelines to minimize friction in the offsets of the piping, creating musical instruments, manufacturing of automobiles, race car fabrication, roll cages, and creating a duct network for heating, ventilation and air conditioning etc. The process of tube bending can be carried out very easily with the help of a tube bender.

Knowing the uses:

As the name suggests, this machine is used when you need to curve a tube or pipe in the desired angle. Using this machine, you could create single or multiple bends in a single pipe. There really is no limit to the directions and angles of bends that you can realize with the effective use of a bending device.

Important aspects of bending a pipe or tube:

In the metal fabrication industry, bending refers to a curve in the pipe that could measure anywhere between 2 degrees to 180 degrees. Of course, the curvature would also depend on the ductility of the metal and the thickness of the tube or pipe to be bent. An experienced metal worker will instantly know these details. However, this process should be carried out carefully, failing which you might have to deal with a broken pipe that would be rendered useless.

Things to keep in mind:

Most fabricators need to be experienced enough because bending leads to changes in the thickness of the pipe or tube wall. For instance, when you bend a pipe, the inner curve becomes thicker as it gets slightly compressed. And, the outer side of the wall gets stretched, thus becoming thin. As you know, a thin wall is more susceptible to cracking or breaking. The most common machines available in the market today can be used for bending mild steel or aluminum, as these are the most commonly used pipe materials.

Here’s how the process is carried out:

To begin with, the pipe that you need to bend is placed in the tube bender and clamped in between two dies. These two dies are the forming die and the clamping block that essentially holds the pipe in place. The actual bending takes place when the pipe is pushed through the forming die. As the pipe passes through the die, it takes on the exact shape and angle of the die. When you are purchasing a tube bender, do remember to ask for dies of different shapes. Machines that are available with an adjustable height stand play a vital role in making the pipe bending process much easier.

Apart from a tube or pipe bending machine, a bead roller is also used for strengthening a sheet of metal. All of these products can be easily purchased from a firm that specializes in selling metal fabrication tools. So whether you are purchasing a tube bender or any other metal fabrication tool, it is always wiser to choose a specialist.