The tube benders are a type of pipe and tube fabrication equipment, which are used for bending tubes. These equipment are available in various types, features, and specifications to meet your application requirements. It is important to know about benders to select right tube bender. It is also important to analyze your bending needs. Along with these, there plenty of factors that you may need to consider while choosing right tube bender. This post gives insights about the factors that help to select the best bender to suit your needs.
Factors to Consider While Choosing right tube bender
If you belong to the metalworking industry then you may know the importance of buying the right equipment. The final result in any metalworking project depends on the quality and the type of equipment used. So, if you wish to buy a tube bender, it takes consideration of multiple factors. Let’s discuss the factors that would help you select right tube bender.
- Know the Types of Tube Blenders: Generally, tube benders are categorized according to their operational mechanism. Let’s discuss a few fundamental types of bending machines.
- Open Rotary Draw Benders: This type of bender bends the tube by drawing it in a curvature. It uses die sets of specific radius and is suitable for metal tube bending.
- Mandrel Benders: A mandrel bending machine uses a series of steel balls called ball mandrel. The series of balls is passed through the tube while being supported by a curved radius to bend the tube. This machine is used for mass tube bending operations.
- Roll Benders: These benders feature a pyramid structure with three rollers situated in a triangular fashion. The tube is rolled on the rollers to bend in a specific diameter.
- Ram-Style Benders: In this type of bender, a die is pushed inside a tube with the help of ram in order to bend the tube in a specific shape. The ram can be powered by hydraulic or pneumatic or manual force.
Along with these main types of benders, there are few types of benders that are named on the basis of their power sources. These types are namely, hydraulic tube benders, pneumatic tube benders, manual benders, electric benders, and NC/CNC electromechanical benders. The function of each bender is associated with the type of actuator and similarly, the efficiencies vary. To select right tube bender, you need to consider the types and select according to your requirements.
- Analyze Your Operational Requirements: When it comes to selecting the best tube bender to suit your needs, you must analyze your requirements. The following factors are important to consider under your operational requirements.
- Speed of operation: If high-speed tube bending operation is required then manual bender may not be a suitable choice. Generally, electrical actuators and pneumatic actuators work excellent for high-speed operations. Therefore, electrical or pneumatic benders will be a choice of high-speed blending. In case of low speed or heavy-duty bending, hydraulic benders are suitable since hydraulic actuators respond well for high load applications.
- Size of Production Batch: The batch size of production should be considered while choosing right tube bender. For batch bending, mandrel bending or CNC bending is preferred.
- Cost and Demand of Operation: The budget and demand are two important factors of selection. One should only invest more if the demand is more. For high demand, the operator shall invest in efficient CNC bender or electric blenders. If the bending operations are rare then the operator can go for the less expensive manual bending machine.
- Match the Machine and Material: The bender must be compatible with the material used. You must consider the tube material, wall thickness, tube diameter, etc. According to these considerations, a suitable tube bender must be selected.
- Explore Tools and Accessories: The tube benders come along with a set of dies and bending tools. During the selection of the benders, you must look for accessories like pipe and tube bending tool kit, rolling machines, multi-purpose tube benders, etc.
- Application Requirements: This can be a little challenging question to address as there are several requirements to be considered. Perhaps, one can focus on the following questions:
- Type of material to be bended
- Maximum and minimum tube size to be achieved
- Part shapes to be achieved
- Dimensions of the tube to be bended
- Wall thickness of the tube to be produced
- Center Line Radius (CLR) of the desired bend
- Volume Consideration: This will depend on the type of bending projects that one undertakes. Some of the main considerations would be:
- Number of parts to be bended in an hour
- Number of hours the machine would be operated
- Number of times it would be operated in a day or month
- Number of times the tooling is changed
- Budget: Perhaps, this is the base of every commercial and industrial investment made and a pipe or tube bender would be no different. Although most metalworking facility owners only concentrate on high value at low investment, that is not enough. At times, a type of tube bending machine may be charged across different brands; so, you must compare the benefits and ROI that they offer.
- Quality: A tube bending equipment is a one-time investment, and you cannot afford to make a wrong decision. The quality of bends would depend on the quality of the machine used.
Along with all the mentioned factors, it is important to seek the experts’ advice while selecting right tube benders. Woodward Fab is a company that has a team of experts to help you with this selection. This company has been actively supplying tube and pipe fabrication equipment like benders since 1966. Their experience and product quality prove their expertise.
Browse Best Quality Pipe and Tube Benders Product Range:
| PRODUCT | SKU/TYPE |
| Hydraulic Pipe and Tubing Bender | WFPB1000 |
| Manual Tube & Pipe Bender | WFB2 |