ALL-ELECTRIC BENDING ADDRESSES CHANGES IN TUBE AND PIPE INDUSTRY

Customers demand tighter radius bending, but no stock. Batch sizes shrinking. Machine setup and scrap dictate job pricing and costs. How can a job shop compete against all of this change? All-electric bending has an answer.

Continuing investment in versatile all-electric bending machinery is helping one of the Midwest’s leading tube and pipe fabrication specialists, Sharpe Products (New Berlin, WI), to meet the evolving business challenges in its sector of the metalworking industry.

Sharpe started up in 1990 as an architectural tube and pipe bending metalwork specialist, but its business has evolved and today the company’s output is split almost equally between the architectural sector, tubular and pipe parts for OEMs, and custom-fabricated assemblies. Its shop uses 13 bending machines in total, with all-electric bending machines spanning a size range from 1.25 in to 5 in. Even larger tube and pipe sizes are handled through hydraulic machinery resources.

Sharpe bought a 5 in Unison tube bender from Horn Machine Tools (Madera, CA), its latest in a series of all-electric bender purchases over the last few years, to gain an edge in meeting the demands of the tube and pipe jobbing business – which has changed in recent years.

Most customers no longer want to invest in stock, and batch sizes have reduced dramatically. This means that machine set-up times become a major factor in job pricing and any scrap generated during set-up – which can often run into several pieces when using older hydraulically-actuated bending machines – can have a negative influence on job costs.

Another major factor in the all-electric investment is the increased demand for tighter radius bending, often down to around 1D (one diameter of the tube size being bent). Sharpe puts this trend down to the way that many OEM companies are now optimizing designs in terms of compactness, materials used, accessibility etc.

“All-electric bending machines help us to stay extremely competitive on all types of projects. If we only had hydraulic machines we probably wouldn’t win a lot of the jobs that we bid on,” notes Sharpe president Paul Krickeberg. “This new Unison bender can be configured for a new batch in typically a third of the time of a hydraulic machine, with no scrap or one piece at the most, and we have such fine control over the bending process that we can easily fabricate really complex shapes with tight radius bends, multi-radius bends, minimal straight sections between bends, etc.”

This 5 in bender is Sharpe’s second Unison-brand model. The plant has been using a 3 in Unison bender that has proven extremely popular on the shop floor. That experience, and the support that Unison and its U.S. partner Horn Machine Tools has given the shop, made the decision to buy a second machine easy.

The company specified the latest Unison Breeze 130 machine for flexibility to help the shop serve any customer requirement. Its configuration involves a multi-stack bender with an ability to hold several tools on the machine for computer-controlled changeover. The system is fitted with high torque servomotors to accommodate the most challenging materials and uses a swing-away wiper die for precision shape forming and control of material flow. The machine is also capable of roll bending.

“The range of jobs this equipment can handle can vary from precise one-off engineering parts to volume runs for OEMs operating in consumer markets,” explains Kent Horn of Horn Machine Tools. “New machines must be extremely versatile in order to earn their keep.”

Horn Machine Tools, 40473 Brickyard Drive, Madera, CA 93638 559-431-4131, sales@hornmachinetools.com, www.hornmachinetools.com.

Unison, Olympian Trading Estate, Cayton Low Road, Scarborough, YO11 3BT, UK, +44(0) 1723 582868, enquiries@unisonltd.com, www.unisonltd.com.

Sharpe Products, 2550 S. 170th Street, New Berlin, WI 53151, 262-754-0369, Fax: 262-754-0374, sales@sharpeproducts.com, www.sharpeproducts.com.