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Marine

Military shipbuilding company Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE:HII) wanted to increase the efficiency of its tube bending facility at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia. Having converted from hydraulic machinery to Unison’s all-electric bending technology several years’ earlier, they looked to the technology pioneers Unison for the expertise to figure out their latest challenge to develop an all-electric machine able to bend piping up to nominal diameter of 8 inches with Schedule 40 wall thicknesses of over 8 mm (with an outside diameter of 8.65 inch or approx. 220 mm).

 

Solution

Unison had to overcome many major engineering challenges to build this landmark machine. The Research & Development team worked on the concept for over a year to finally develop a machine offering an advanced and highly productive alternative to the hydraulically-powered machines that are typically used today for bending large diameter tubing and piping. Its all-electric bending design, controlled by programmable software, closed-loop servomotor axes, allows automatic machine setup, and delivers extremely high accuracy and repeatability from batch to batch.

 

Result

HII can now produce right first-time bending of tubes and pipes up to 8 inches/220 mm in diameter.

 

MACHINE FEATURES:

  • Low loading height of just 60 inches (1524 mm).
  • Compact bend head enables fabrication of intricate shapes without danger of collision.
  • Long (up to 9 m) and complex pipe shapes can be bent in one process.
  • High torque provides the capability for bending piping made from specialist high strength and/or corrosion resistant alloys.
  • Laser-controlled springback correction system saving wastage.
  • Programmability allows bending programs to be highly optimised for each particular application, to achieve goals such as bending brittle materials, or retaining as much wall thickness as possible after bending.
  • CAD interface.

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