Blog by Alan Pickering.
It’s probably best to answer this question in reverse, when would you use Laser Springback?
I would say, when you are bending expensive materials and the part you are trying to produce is a one off, this would be laser springback’s most advantageous scenario, typically in both the marine and oil and gas sectors.
Considering the above statement, there are also some exceptions. If you are bending some thin-walled material, at a tight radius, which has high springback characteristics, typically in the aerospace sector, this isn’t going to work so well, purely on the basis of the process involved in correcting any errors, if you just need to collect data, then that is possible.
Once the Unibend Controller has calculated the error in the angle, the bend arm needs to return to the measured angle, before the part is re-clamped, tweaked and measured again, perhaps repeating the process.
Again if you are bending some thin-walled material, at a tight radius, which has high springback characteristics like titanium, this isn’t going to work well.
This is because the original bending cycle is going to have had the mandrel withdrawn, as supporting the inside of the tube is critical when bending, and it’s not possible to insert the mandrel again to its original position.
Also, if you have high springback material, it is not going to take kindly to being pushed back into the toolset, unless the angle was already close by having some pre-determined springback estimate.
Yes, some companies will use a sensor on the outside of the bend arm to measure the position of the tube relative to the clamp.
Although it sounds plausible that this will work, mathematically it misses one key element – Radial Growth.
It is mathematically not possible to capture Radial Growth, and similarly, accurate springback without a pair of sensors looking at the clamp straight.
Unison pioneered this process almost 20 years ago and it has proved very successful.
“It may not be the cheapest way of doing things but it is the right way of doing things”, something that is firmly in Unison’s DNA !
Got a question for our team? email sales@unisonltd.com.
