Van Rijsoort is one of Northern Europe’s leading specialists for cold and induction bending tubing and profiles. The company has a large number of tube and pipe bending machines. Its customer base is diverse and ranges from aerospace and automotive, to agricultural equipment, petrochemical processing, shipbuilding and architecture.
Until 2011, Van Rijsoort’s tube bending machinery was hydraulically powered. With such a wide customer base, however, versatility was seen as key when looking to increase tube bending capacity. This led Technical Director, Jeroen Swinkels, to investigate the capabilities of all-electric, servomotor-controlled tube bending machines.
The diversity of work undertaken by Van Rijsoort, and the variety of materials bent, led to the company having in-depth discussions with Unison Ltd about its exceptionally versatile, ultra-precise, all-electric CNC tube bending machines. After considering the capabilities of various Unison models, Van Rijsoort chose a 130 mm all-electric model from Unison’s Breeze range.
The machine was selected as it covered a large proportion of Van Rijsoort’s typical work, with a number of custom features and modifications to ensure maximum flexibility. These included multi-stack tooling, roll-bending capability, an integrated inclinometer, a laser system for auto-correcting bends, and a feature allowing the working height of the machine to be adjusted
The 130 mm tube bender proved so successful for Van Rijsoort that, only recently, the business invested in another all-electric tube bender from Unison – a 76 mm multi-stack, multi-radius model, with roll-forming capability.
Key features of the 130 mm all-electric Unison Breeze machine that were particularly attractive to Van Rijsoort included the laser springback correction system and the ease of programming, thanks to Unison’s industry leading Unibend control system. These features simplify the bending of the most complex shapes and the most difficult materials, by finely controlling bending speed and pressures, with right-first-time results – or after bending a trial part. The built -in inclinometer, which was easy to integrate thanks to Unison’s PC-based controller, automates many jobs that Van Rijsoort has where it bends pre-cut tubes, that have holes, slots and apertures.
