Production System for Thin-walled Tube Bending 2003-01-2787
In the bending of thin-walled tube, wrinkles occur easily and it is difficult to maintain precision of shape. We focused on a hydro-bending (water mandrel) method in which both ends of the tube are tightly sealed with reusable pressure-resistant plugs, and filled with water, and bent while water pressure high. The result is a high-quality bending method capable of producing quality products in one process with the thin-walled tubes (external diameter 38.1mm, wall thickness 0.85mm, bend radius 60mm) that had been considered difficult to mass-produce in the past.