Do tube bending machines save energy?

Energy savings linked to the electrification of tube bending machines are analyzed. A methodology for performing a comprehensive energy assessment is defined. Machine energy model is developed and updated using experimental power measurements. The conceived energy model shows the process rate and tube material dependence.

How do rotary-draw bending machines work?

During the passive (ready for operations) phase, the tube is manually unloaded and a new tube is loaded onto the rotary-draw bending machine. In order to focus only on the machine dependent energy contribution, the experiments were conducted on both machines without the presence of the tube.

Does rotary draw tube bending machine electrification save energy?

The energy savings potentials linked to the rotary draw tube bending machine electrification are mainly connected with replacing the hydraulic system (including the pump), that typically consumes energy even when the machine is not performing active phases of the bending process.

Can hydraulic tube bending save energy?

However, even for hydraulic tube benders, relevant energy savings (up to 40%) can be achieved if developing specific control strategies, as demonstrated by Lin and Renn (2014). Industrially, there is a clear tendency in low tonnage metal bending applications for replacing the hydraulic units with electric modules.

What are bent tubes used for?

The bent tubes have been widely used in many high-end industries such as aviation, aerospace, shipbuilding, automobile, energy and health care. The tube bending has become one of the key manufacturing technologies for lightweight product forming.

What is NC tube bending?

Fig. 11 Press bending of tube with internal pressure . By integrating the traditional rotary draw bending with NC techniques, NC tube bending has been one of the advanced plastic processing technologies to form thin-walled lightweight tube components in aviation, aerospace and automobile industries (shown in Fig. 12).