Pipe and Tube Fabrication Tools

What are the Pipe Bending & Metal Tube Fabrication Tools available at Woodward Fab?

• You can create a wide array of bends using our manual pipe roller or small pipe benders
• Increase your bending capabilities with our stainless-steel tube bender kit
• Our hand pipe bender are strong, and flexible, and provide ease of usage and storage.
• The pipe notcher provides a superior grip to ensure that your cut is clean and precise.
• Our tube and pipe bender can be used on components made of aluminum, carbon, and stainless steel.
• The pipe benders consist of all steel dies, which can provide efficient bending solutions every time.
• The tubing benders are designed with ratcheting systems. This ensures that the user needs to put little effort to perform the bending process.
• The pipe and tube notchers are designed with all the hardware required for setup in a shop, truck, or another application area.
• Our hydraulic tube rolling machine can roll flat bars, as well as round and square tubes.

A Complete Pipe and Tube Bender Guide

Bending is a metal forming process, where the metal sheet is bent into the desired shape. Generally, this type of bending is accomplished using a pipe and tubing bender. Woodward Fab offers one of the comprehensive selections of pipe and tube bender for making round or square tubes. Our selection features simple manual pipe benders to hydraulic pipe and tube rolling machines and more. This equipment is widely used in automotive or other metal-forming industries for building products such as automotive exhausts, roll cages, handrails, gates, metal furniture, and so on. Proper metal bending is one of the important requirements when it comes to the aforementioned products. Any improper bends may cause dams or eddies, which would fail to inhibit the flow of exhaust fluids and gases or produce surface imperfections such as wrinkles, crushing, and kinks.

What are the types of Pipe and Tube Bending Machines?

At Woodward Fab, we provide various types of tube bending machines. They can be mainly categorized into the following types:

• Manual Benders: As the name suggests, these tubing benders can be operated using hands, and they are suited for small production runs, or entry-level projects. These tube-bending machines demand a high level of proficiency. The bending accuracy and repeatability of bend angles depend on the operator’s efficiency.
• Hydraulic Benders: Like any other hydraulic device, these bending machines are powered by a combination of shop air and hydraulics. These bending machines are widely used across auto shops and metalworking shops. They assure high bending power and enable hands-free bending, too.
• Electric Benders: These tube bending machines are equipped with hydraulic or electric pumps and are comparatively faster than regular hydraulic benders. Like the regular hydraulic benders, these benders are suited for auto workshops, too.

What are the beneficial features of Pipe and Tube Bending Machines?

The following features would help you understand the tube bender capacity and their benefits better.

• The tube benders are capable of bending tubes up to 2″ diameter.
• They are capable of delivering perfect round and square bends.
• These tube bending machines can handle metal sheets of aluminum, copper, stainless steel, and steel.
• Owing to their compact designs, these pipes and tube bending machines are easy to store when not in use.

What are the 4 Methods of Tube and Pipe Bending?

The tube bending methods vary in their application and complexity. The process of tube bending begins by loading a tube into the pipe and tube bender. The loaded tube is clamped between the forming die, the clamping block, and two dies. The tube is also supported by two other dies, the pressure die and the wiper die.

1. Press Bending: This pipe and tube bending method utilizes a die. The tube to be bent is pressed against the die, thereby forcing it to form the shape of the die.
2. Roll Bending: This bending method gets its name from the roller machine that is used to bend a tube. Generally, a 3- or 4-roll machine known as a section roller or angle roller is used for the task. The pipe is made to pass through the roller, where it is pressed to a desired degree of bend. At Woodward Fab, we provide pipe and tube rolling machines of different types. These machines allow users to create bends in different radii.
3. Rotary Draw Bending: This pipe and tube bending method also uses die sets, however, the difference lies in the type of these die sets. These die sets feature a constant center line radius (CLR), which is also known as mean bending radius (Rm). Rotary draw benders can be programmed to store various bend projects with varying degrees of bending.
4. Mandrel Bending: This type of bending is an extension of rotary draw bending. The rotary bender can form tighter and more precise radii. However, during the process, the tube walls may collapse. A rotary bender is added at the time of forming to protect the tube walls from collapsing. This bender also aids in stretching and forming the tube around the die. The mandrel chosen for the task has slightly less internal diameter than the tube being bent.

What are the Essential Tube Bender Components and Parts?

Tube bender components can be distinguished as replaceable and anon-replaceable components. Of these, the wipers, the mandrel, shank, nose, body, and ball mandrels are components that need to be replaced after a certain time. However, the following are examples of tube bender components that do not require regular replacement because they are used only in special cases:

• Bend Dies
• Pressure Dies
• Clamp Dies
• Wiper Posts
• Wiper Holders
• Clamp Adjuster
• Clamp Bolster
• Bend Post and Bend Die Base

What are the Tube and Pipe Bender Troubleshooting Tips?

The pipe and tube bending equipment is like any other industrial equipment. It may fail to perform at times. This is when troubleshooting becomes important. Here is how you can proceed with tube bender troubleshooting:

• Conduct a visual inspection of machine parts.
• Check for worn out tools.
• Inspect the lubrication of the machine and its pressure-applying capacity.
• Check for mismatch of the working surfaces of the tool.
• Avoid using tubing material that is too soft or too hard, undersized, oversized, or with the wrong wall thickness.