PROFILE BENDER MACHINE | IMPORTANT FEATURES TO CONSIDER

A Profile Bender is one of the most common machines in a manufacturing or fabrication facility. It does exactly what it says, it bends profiles. This type of machine has many other names that descend directly from the overall versatility of this type of machine. Some common other names include: Roll Bender, Profile Roller, Angle Roller, Section Roll, Ring Roller, Ring Bender, Ring Roll Bender, Section Bending Machines and Section Bender. Related: A Better Way For Bending Metal USES FOR PROFILE BENDERS MACHINES Profile benders are used to roll out profiles of materials into rings, circles, or sections of a ring or circle. The industries that use profile bending machines are vast. For example, some uses for ring rollers are: To build handrail around buildings To design metal art Unique components of roll cages for race cars of all types Safety rails and structures around industrial sites and machinery Pulpits on boats Street furniture such as benches and bollards Ships internal and external structures Bridge superstructures Airplane framework Automotive frames Boat and marine framework Rail transport The profiles that can be bent with a profile bender is infinite. Custom shapes and profiles for the door and window industry are very common and custom tools can be designed to accommodate these profiles. However, some other common profiles include: Flat bar being bent hard way Flat bar bent the easy way Square solid rod Round solid rod Standard round tubing Nominal bore pipe (NBP) Rectangle sections Rectangle tubes box sections Angle iron being bent with the leg facing in Angle iron with a leg facing out T-Section leg in T-Section leg-out UNP Section leg in UNP Section leg out WHAT PROFILE BENDER MACHINE IS SUITABLE FOR YOU? Profile Benders come in a wide variety of sizes. For instance the very small machines are used to make rings for jewellery. The larger machines can bend pipes – that are 2 metres in diameter with 50mm wall thickness. In addition, they can bend a variety of materials. For instance, low carbon steel, medium to high carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminium, copper and cast iron. Just about anything you can find that is made into a solid bar or tube. Here are some important features of profile benders, that must be considered when determining which is suitable for your applications. MANUAL OR HYDRAULIC MACHINE This terminology is typically referring to how the bending roll (shaft) is physically moved and positioned to perform the bending process. If it is a manual machine the bending roll is positioned with a corkscrew type mechanism. If it is a hydraulic machine the bending roll position is controlled with up and down buttons that control the direction of the hydraulic mechanism. SHAFT SIZE Most profile benders will derive their model number from the size of the shafts it has. Therefore, this directly relates to the outside diameter of the shafts. HOW MANY SHAFTS DOES THE MACHINE HAVE? Profile bender machines generally have three shafts. However, some models have four shafts and others will have more for special applications. HOW MANY MOVABLE ROLLS (SHAFTS) ARE THERE AND WHICH ROLLS MOVE AND IN WHAT DIRECTION? The term “Movable Rolls” generally refer to “Moveable Shafts”. The most common scenario for profile benders is when they have one bending roll in the top position and moves up and down in a vertical movement; providing bending force. However, there are profile bender machines with a configuration that has a static top roll. The bottom rolls move up and in, towards the top roll, either together or separately. As a result, through this movement provide bending force on the material. HOW MANY DRIVEN ROLLS DOES THE MACHINE HAVE? Typical profile benders will have either two or three driven rolls that will push the material through the bending rolls. For a two driven roll machine, the two bottom rolls are more often than not, the driven rolls. WHAT IS THE MOTOR SIZE? For manual machines, there will be one primary drive motor that drives the driven shafts. For hydraulic machines, there is the main drive motor and then a motor that powers the hydraulic system. Both must be of adequate size and duty in relation to what the section bender is designed to accomplish. WHAT IS THE BENDING ROLL OR ROLLS POSITIONING MECHANISM? This refers back to whether the machine is manual or hydraulic and also to the topic of the number of movable shafts and which rolls move. HOW IS THE POSITION OF THE BENDING ROLL OR ROLLS DISPLAYED? The position of the bending rolls can be display manually with a scale, with a DRO, or on an NC or CNC display. HOW IS THE MACHINE ON THE WHOLE CONTROLLED? This refers to how the machine is controlled and the typical configurations are fully manually, hydraulic with digital displays, NC, and full CNC configurations. There are of course a wide variety of varying combinations of the control systems available in either a standard or bespoke configuration. WHAT IS THE DISTANCE BETWEEN SHAFTS? This is the distance between the centre points of the two bottom primary shafts. The top shaft can also be taken into consideration in certain situations. With a machine with the two bottom shafts being positionable, the minimum distance between the shafts in conjunction with their minimum distance to the top shaft will determine, how tight of a ring can be accomplished. In addition, the type and profile of the material, WHAT IS THE USABLE LENGTH OF THE SHAFTS? This is the distance the from where the threads stop on the front of the shaft, to the back of the shaft, then joins up with the main structure of the machine. It will determine what the maximum thickness of the rolls to be mounted on the shafts can be. STANDARD SECTION TOOLING CONFIGURATION? Profile bender machines more often come with a set of tools on the shafts. The tools are called section rolls. There are typically 2 larger plates of varying thicknesses and then a set of smaller concentric smaller tools of varying thicknesses. The larger plates will have a recess on both sides, one recess being deeper than the other. A vast majority of standard square and rectangle profiles can be bent eliminating the need for custom tooling. This is done by configuring the pattern of the larger and smaller rolls and then taking into consideration the recesses on the larger plates. Round profiles can also be run through these varying configurations, but the full profile of the tube will not be supported and the round shape will be distorted. HOW IS THE BASE FRAMEWORK OF THE MACHINE CONSTRUCTED AND FROM WHAT MATERIALS? How a profile bender is constructed varies greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer. The structure must be suitable to address the intended applications. The framework will have a direct impact on the cost of the machine, the results achieved with the machine, and then the life of the machine. The most standard of section rollers will have a tubular framework that incorporates a large steel plate that houses the shafts. Ring rollers that accommodate most rigorous applications will have alternative frameworks and structures to support the added stresses. WHAT PLANES CAN THE MACHINE WORK IN? Profile bender machines typically will have the ability to work in two planes. The first of the two is where the shafts are horizontal to the floor and the frontal surface of the machine is perpendicular to the floor. The other position is where the machine is flipped 90 degrees. In addition, the frontal surface of the machine is horizontal to the floor and the shafts are perpendicular to the floor. This position better accommodates applications that use long profiles. DO YOU NEED A PROFILE BENDER MACHINE? CONTACT US TODAY In general, these are the primary considerations when looking to determine what profile bender is suitable for your needs and production facility. Each parameter can change and then the combination of all the features listed above can create an exponential and dynamic scenario. The Workshop Press Company has many years of experience in selling profile bender machines. Therefore, we can readily assist you in determining which machine is appropriate for your needs. Contact us today at +44 (0)1926 800 777 or at info@workshoppress.co.uk.

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