Useful instructions for copper pipe bending

Here is another interesting article we found, about how to use a copper pipe bender; there are many commonly used applications which require bending the copper pipe, such as heating, plumbing, air conditioning, etc.

These kind of bending machine allow the user to manually bend pipe to the required angle to connect to the system fixtures.

Copper pipe will straighten slightly after being removed from the copper tube bender. It is advised to bend the pipe about 2 to 5 degrees more than the desired angle. It wikk take some practice to get familiar with this process and correctly judge the extra bend angle to use.

Source: How to Use a Copper Pipe Bender | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_5592467_use-copper-pipe-bender.html#ixzz18r1S2H2s

Bending Machines Operator

A bending machine operator sets up and operates machinery constructed to bend metal structural shapes, such as pipes, tubes, bars, rods, angles, to angle or contour according to speficic requirements such as drawings, templates, or layouts: the operator selects and bolts holding clamp, die block, and guide clamp to machine.
Following, are some of the activities due during the daily operations:

• Positioning and clamping end stops on machine to set specified location of bend.


• Screwing or insterting or plug stops into guide wheel to set specified degree of bend.


• Positioning workpiece against end stop. Locking and holding clamp and guide clamp onto workpiece.


• Lubricating workpiece with oil.


• Starting turntable to draw workpiece through guide clamp around die block until stopped by plug stops or until dial indicator points to specified degree of bend.
• Sliding mandrel into tubing instead of using guide clamp.


• Etc

Being the bending industry quite big, it can be easy to find several open positions for this kind, despite this industry has been challenged as many others by the struggling faced this year by western countries economies.
For instance, it is whorth looking at sites such as:
http://ca.indeed.com/Bending-Machine-Operator-jobs

Bending Performance Evaluation

I found this interesting document and I would like to share it with you:
square tube bending performances of aluminum beams reinforced by aluminum plates under three point bending loads have been evaluated using experimental tests combined with theoretical and finite element analyses.
Basic properties of aluminum materials used for initial input data of the finite element simulation were obtained from the true stress-true strain curves of specimens which had bean extracted from the Al tube beams.
True stresses were determined from applied loads and cross-sectional area records of a tensile specimen with a rectangular cross-section by real-time photographing. True strains were obtained from in-situ local elongation measurements of the specimen gage portion by the multi-point scanning laser extensometer. Four kinds of aluminum tube beam specimens adhered by aluminum plates were employed. The bending deformation behaviors up to the maximum load described by the numerical simulation were in good agreement with experimental ones. An aluminum tube beam strengthened by aluminum plate on the upper web showed an excellent bending capability

(source:http://www.scientific.net/KEM.297-300.2290)