SteelFab - January 14 to 17, 2013

SteelFab is the most-attended and highly anticipated trade fair that caters to the regional metal working, metal-manufacturing and steel fabrication industry.

The number of exhibitors has constantly risen from 48 in the first edition to 216 direct participants in 2009 representing over 600 brands from all over the world.
Even with the global recession, SteelFab 2010 retained 190 direct exhibitors who showcased over 500 brands at the show and SteelFab 2011 increased to 206 direct exhibitors from 20 countries, showcasing over 600 brands. SteelFab 2013 has recorded yet an increase in visitors to 216 direct exhibitors from 26 countries.

Actual floor space has increased from 1,200 sqm (gross in 2004) to 18,000 (gross) in 2009 and 16,000 (gross) in 2012. The direct exhibitor numbers from Italy, Germany, and other European countries have remained quite stable.

Every January, global attention shifts to Expo Centre Sharjah, with the convergence of major regional buyers and international manufacturers in the steel fabrication industry for SteelFab.
SteelFab enjoys the status of the most exclusive and largest trade fair of its kind in the region and has found favour with manufacturers and dealers from across the world for being a highly reliable and dedicated platform.

For those seeking easy access to the fast-growing Arab economies as well as the existing and emerging markets in the entire Middle East and Africa region, the Indian sub-continent and Central Asia, SteelFab is a gateway that facilitates seamless trade.

The next edition of SteelFab will be held at Expo Centre Sharjah from January 14 to 17, 2013 and visitors will meet world leader corporate also in cnc bending machines. 

INNOVATIVE CONTRUCTION PHILOSOPHY IN BENDING MACHINE

In a globalised world it may seem trivial to underline the origin of a product, but nowadays it’s important to assure clientele that entire production is all studied, designed and assembled in Italy. Especially in these times of worldwide crisis in industry it is important to point out that the company has continued to develop, refurbishing with a new high quality management system, SAP, worldwide leader in software solutions for business. Furthermore, a lot of energy has been spent in finding new technical solutions in the manufacture of the machines, in testing new products for special processing and in continual updating of the CNC-i numeric control–core and real added value of all bending machines.

LAMIERA 2010 exhibits a synthetic but significant series of high quality products manufactured by the company that has been UNI ISO 9001 certified for many years. The construction principle applied by most manufacturers consists in two angle rolls, mounted on pivoted levers on a central pin, that follow an orbital path, a third fixed roll overlays these two rolls, in a central position in relation to the other two.

CNC bending machines geometry is very common because production costs are less. However, this system has certain equally evident drawbacks, due to the forces involved, that subject the structure to considerable stress concentrated in a single point: the central pin. This is the weak point of the entire system, because, even if largely over-dimensioned , it will never have the necessary stiffness to ensure an even distribution of the stress it is submitted to.

The company has built and patented an innovative drive and support system of the roll-carrier shafts on slides with a linear stroke, which is much more precise and stiff than the system previously described. To this important development the possibility is added to be able to apply independent supports, that restrain the ends of the shafts greatly restricting deflection. The slides with their straight-line stroke act as the base to assemble the supports, so that also during adjustment of the slides, the shafts are always rigidly restrained on three points.

Possibility to bend section bars with a double pipe bending strength, compared to a bending machine with conventional drive system at the same cost.

The possibility to have an immediate saving on the purchase of a bending machine, which is much smaller, but appropriately dimensioned for the steel bending needs required.

Considerable saving on cost and on the handling of fixtures, much less cumbersome and with higher dynamics in the operations.

Requirements in tube bending

The three principal requirements in tube bending are simply: machine, operator and tooling.

All three factors must be especially good to work with thin wall tubing on tight radii. Too many facilities still depend on the operators genius to compensate for near useless tooling. Poor tooling results in longer set-up time, scrapping of expensive tubing, poorly bent tubes and fail to produce an acceptable pipe bender. Highly competitive custom tube bending companies realize cheap and inferior tooling is the most expensive they can buy. Interlock tooling represents the ultimate in tube bending tooling. Complete interlock tooling, although developed and successful for numerical control tube benders, has proven advantageous for conventional machines. Each tool of the matching set is laterally locked in alignment. The clamp die is keyed and locked to the bend die, the wiper die located and locked to the pressure die, and the pressure die in turn is locked in alignment to the bend die.

Field reports have confirmed several advantages of interlock tooling. The clamp die, with all the hydraulic pressure available to it, will not crush or even mark the tube, thereby providing vastly improved gripping properties. Bend die and pressure die marks on the top and bottom of the tube are completely eliminated. In 23 instances tested, set up averaged one-third the time allotted for conventional tooling. A 32% reduction of scrap was recorded over previous runs using conventional tooling.

The five pieces of tooling (bend die, pressure die, wiper die, mandrel and clamp die) must all be close-tolerance excellent tooling. The bend die should have a maximum run out at the bottom of the bend groove of not more than . To help prevent tooling marks on the top and bottom of the tube bending machines, the bend groove should be deeper than half the tube diameter. The bend groove should be dead round and the diameter should measure 10% timeís wall thickness over tube diameter. The clamping area, unless cleated or with other provision such as flaring, beading, etc., should be three to six times tube diameter with a sandblasted or rough finish. The diameter of a clamp area should not be undersize more than 10% of wall thickness. Grip or pinch clearance should be held to a minimum. To permit the bend die to be used on right and left hand machines, the counter bore and keyway often are machined on both sides of the die. Centerline height must be maintained for both sides.

BENDING WITH BALL MANDREL AND WIPER DIE

When the radius of the bend is smaller and/or the wall is thinner, it becomes necessary to use a

ball mandrel and wiper die. The wiper die is used to prevent wrinkles. The ball mandrel performs like a plug mandrel. The balls are used to keep the tube from collapsing after it leaves the mandrel shank.

Bending issues are enlarged when making tight bends or with thin wall tubing. It becomes more difficult to retain the material during compression.

The pressure is so intense the material is squeezed back past tangent and buckles. This area must be supported so that the material will compress rather than buckle; this is the prime purpose of the wiper die. Note, the wiper die cannot flatten wrinkles after they are formed; it can only prevent them.

Bending thin wall tubing - requirements for the bending of thin wall tubing with tight radius bends of centerline radius equaling the tube outside diameter have become more common in recent years.

To increase the problem, new alloys have been developed that are extremely difficult to bend. The proper bending machine, good tooling, and a trained operator can make all the difference.

To facilitate this type of tube bending, the material to be bent should receive special consideration. To help maintain the consistency of the tubing dimensions and characteristics, the entire material required for a given job should be acquired from one supplier, preferably even from the same lot or heat number. Premium-priced close-tolerance tubing should be considered. It often saves many more times its added cost. It may be necessary on occasion to size certain tubing before bending.

There are many pipe bending machines but only a few are capable of thin wall, 1 x D bending.

Even those machines best suited for this special bending must be in excellent condition and of a size large enough to assure rigidity. The machine must be capable of retracting and advancing the mandrel with the clamp and pressure dies closed. A hydraulically actuated pressure die is desirable. One feature of this system is that it provides identical pressure on the tube regardless of wall variation.

A pressure die boost counteracts the drag of the pressure die, mandrel and wiper die. It pushes the tube into the bending area, preventing excessive wall thin out.

Without a pressure die boost, the thinning that normally can be expected is about three quarters of the elongation of the outer wall. Companies specialized in steel bending automation for a broad array of fabricated products, includes CNC tube benders, tube measuring equipment and complete cellular integrated systems.

BENDING TUBE

A bend die, clamp die, and pressure die are the minimum essentials for tube bending. The bend die helps to prevent the tube from flattening and forms a given radius of bend.

The clamp die holds the tube in position while bending. The pressure die forces the tube into the bend die.

Springback is excessive when a mandrel is not used. This should be considered when selecting a bend die. Springback is the term used to describe the tendency of metal that has been formed to return to its original shape. Springback will cause the tube to unbend from two to ten degrees depending on the radius of bend, and may increase the bend radius of the tube. The smaller the radiuses of bend the smaller the springback.

The tube may kink or buckle, this may be due to hard material which will not compress on the inside radius of the bend. The material, not being able to compress, pushes in toward the centerline of the tube. This condition can be corrected (provided the tube is not too hard) by proper set up of the tooling. A plug mandrel is indicated if the tube buckles and is still within the wall factor and the diameter of the bend.

The purpose of a plug mandrel is to prevent the tube from flattening and to bend without wrinkles or kinks. The mandrel is held in a fixed position while the tube is pulled over it. The tube stretching process is localized on the outer radius of the bend and the material is work hardened to retain its shape and not flatten. The material stretching is done on the forward tip of the mandrel. This force, acting on the mandrel tip, supports the inner radius of the bend, holding it firmly into the bend die groove. CNC bender is used on CNC benders from 0.25" inch to 6" inch tube bending machines.

The pressure die should be adjusted for a light pressure against the tube. The purpose of the pressure die is to keep the tube against the bend die through the duration of bending. The pressure die also keeps the mandrel from bending and maintains a straight tube between tangent points of bends (the portion of ubing left on the mandrel after steel bending). The location of the mandrel affects the amount of springback. The mandrel in a forward position (toward tangent) will stretch the material on the outside of the bend more than is necessary. This increases the length of material on the outside beyond that which is required to make a bend. When the bent tube is removed from the bend die, it will conform to the die and there will be little or no springback.

STEEL BENDING

Bending is a process by which metal can be deformed by plastically deforming the material and changing its shape. The material is stressed beyond the yield strength but below the ultimate tensile strength. The surface area of the material does not change much. Bending usually refers to deformation about one axis.

Bending is a flexible process by which many different shapes can be produced. Standard die sets are used to produce a wide variety of shapes. The material is placed on the die, and positioned in place with stops and/or gages. It is held in place with hold-downs. The upper part of the press, the ram with the appropriately shaped punch descends and forms the v-shaped bend.

Bending is done using press brakes that normally have a capacity of 20 to 200 tons to accommodate stock from 1m to 4.5m . Larger and smaller presses are used for specialized applications.

Steel bending e metal bending technology delivers both precision and flexibility. The company uses only the latest technology in bending machine. With a fleet of press brakes capable of providing greater design versatility, even higher precision and shorter set-up times, can handle lengths up to 4000mm and apply a force up to 230 tonnes. Extremely large bending spaces, automatic crowning and an intelligent 6-axes backgauge widen our capacity even further!

Since 1908 the company has provided tube bending machines, bending of pipes, bar bending, beam bending, structural steel bending and plate rolling for original equipment manufacturers and construction. That accumulated expertise, along with our state-of-the-art bending machines and highly trained employees, translates into cost effective, 99% error-free quality for all of your steel bending and rolling of other metals.

Our tube bending capabilities include round, rectangular and square tubing from 3/8 inch diameter to 24 inch outside diameter and virtually every size tube in between. Applications include parts for roll-over protection on vehicles, elbows for process plants, and bicycle racks. In construction, tube bending is used for parts of roof trusses, as stringers on bridges, for canopies and circular staircases. The engineers designed and manufactured arms to support the buckets on their front-end loaders.

Products have the capabilities of bending pipes up to 24 inch diameter. Applications include pipe bending for agricultural and construction machinery, for process piping and for antennas. Construction applications include sections for curved pipe trusses, bridges, circular stairs, and canopies. We are bending bars up to 36 inch by 12 inch. Applications include bending bars for flanges to connect pipe, stiffeners around tanks and pipe clamps. Construction applications include bending bars for handrails, strakes on stacks, and curved lintels.

ROLL BENDER

A roll bender is a very robustly built and powerful pipe roller capable. This can be used in any fabrication shop or out in the field on job sites, considering it only requires 220 volts of single phase power to operate. It can be operated in both the vertical mode for small rolling projects, as well as in the horizontal mode for large rolling projects as there are feet on the bottom and back of the machine.

Roll benders work by "pinching" the flat workpiece between two rolls and bending it as it comes in contact with a forming roll. This bends the workpiece into a cylindrical form, where it is welded together to produce a cylinder. Caps are then welded on to produce tanks.
The upper roll is in a fixed position, the lower roll has adjustable movement to perform the gripping function. These are the "pinch" rolls. The third roll (the forming roll) is also adjustable.

Truly built to do the job year after year, these machines are designed with all three rolls driven. This insures easy material feeding and constant pull through of the workpiece.

With a manually or air adjusted drop hinge, the top shaft is automatically raised to release the pressure on the rolled sheet when the tail hinge is lowered. The rear forming roll is adjusted manually on some standard models.

This pipe bending roller has a motor to direct drive gear transmission for positive transfer of power to the drive rollers. The transmission is overload protected by a variable speed inverter drive unit. The variable speed is controlled by a speed pot and becomes very handy when rolling various types and sizes of metal section. This ring roll bender comes standard with foot pedal controls, segment rolls, and lateral roll guides that are very handy when coiling is required. The top roll position is manually descended and the position is indicated on a scale for repeatable bends every time. Optional rolls can be purchased for different profiles like tubing, pipe, angle iron and much more.

Ring rollers are built to a very high quality standard using only the best components on the market. The powered models come with heavy steel plate frame designs, heavy bases, and industrial grade transmissions with overload protection as standard. These ring rollers offer more quality for the investment and will perform decades of service. It is typically in stock for shipments within 72 hours or less.

The technical specifications and standard equipment are:

· Driven Rolls

· Variable Speed

· Rolls are hardened

· Steel bending

· Rolls shafts are a special steel material that is hardened and ground

· Standard Rolls

· Angle Rolls

· Horizontal and Vertical Working Position

· Foot Pedal

· Users manual