Work Cells and Systems
TU400 Work Cells and Systems
The information that follows has been taken from articles, classes, and seminars Jeff Tapper has published / presented. Please contact us to schedule a training session for you or your employees.
Please click on the following links to see the topics
401 Definition of Workcells and Systems
402 Examples of Workcells
403 Examples of Systems
404 Why Choose Cells or Systems
405 Design Considerations
If tube bending gained a reputation as a "Black Art", the set up people are probably the ones who started it. with only very experienced set up persons and operators able to consistently make good parts. Most of the problems come from establishing and then repeating the various forces exerted on the tube during the bending process. Another big source for problems is consistently locating the tube prior to each bend. Several things have happened to make the task of tube bending easier.
The first powered tube benders built in the US were completely manual machines and became available during the mid 1930's from a company called Wallace Supplies and Manufacturing (now called Jesse Engineering). Pines was started a few years later by Wallace's ex chief engineer. Pines grew to dominate the early market for tube benders. Manual machines required the operator to position tube prior to each bend, close the clamp and pressure dies, actuate the swing arm, and then open everything up at the end of the bend. Semi-automatic machines improved things with a "start" button to cycle through each bend and rudimentary storage for degrees of bend.
CNC tube benders became available in the late 1960's, a huge improvement over semi-automatic and manual machines. These machines initially used servo-valve controlled hydraulics to position the tube for for the correct distance between bends (DBB), rotation or plane of bend (POB), and then bent the tube to the correct degree of bend (DOB). Since then, there has been a gradual movement towards electronic servo motors, first on the DBB and POB, then the DOB, and in the mid 1990's, all electronic machines started to become available.
All electronic machines are a head and shoulders improvement over machines that use hydraulics. Clamp die force, pressure die force, pressure die assist force and speed are all critical elements for consistent production of good parts. With an all electronic machine, each value can be programmed and then saved for a particular part. The advent of all electronic machines has gone a long ways towards removing the "Black Magic" from tube bending.