Blog by Stuart Singleton.
Many businesses are looking to automate elements of their tube processing including the tube bending process.
This is down to a desire for better productivity and, also to reduce the need for labour in the area as the skills shortage begins to bite hard.
Whilst in many cases it is a great solution to both those challenges, this is not always the case.
So, what factors should one consider when contemplating the automation of the bending process?
Many businesses are constrained by the need to get a rapid return on investment (ROI) on capital projects.
In some cases, this requirement stymies the possibility of both growth in output and an increase in bottom line contribution.
Businesses that look a little further into the future, say five years instead of 18 months, often see a rapid hit on the profit line and an increase in available capacity.
When envisaging an automation project, there are a few important factors to consider:
This is important in terms of loading and unloading solutions as well as tool changeovers.
Loading a tube over a mandrel requires a “pusher” to ensure the tube will go over the mandrel, or a machine that can swallow the mandrel and pass through the tooling to collet.
This in turn leads to the loading having to take place from the front of the bending machine and inevitably increases the footprint of the cell.
It is possible to incorporate many elements beyond just tube bending within a tube processing cell.
For example, end forming, drilling of holes, punching and smashing are often incorporated, and Unison has even created cells that label the products and pack them into boxes that are made by an automatic box erector, which are then sealed and palletized.
It’s good to re-imagine the processes while, at the same time, not overcomplicating things.
If part geometry is simple, then this is certainly possible. Unison has provided solutions to a high-volume fitting manufacturer that bend up to six parts at the same time.
It is important that these, and other, questions are discussed in detail with a potential supplier that has wide experience of providing automated solutions to tube processing challenges.
In conclusion, there is no “one size fits all” to the question of automation.
It is extremely important that the potential supplier is deeply involved in the process from conception, through proof of business case and into the post installation stage.
