A manufacturing set-up with a computer numeric control system offers the greatest assurance that bent tubing appears smooth, round and unwrinkled. What type of bending method invites the insertion of a computer numeric control system? Can that method be used to carry-out aluminum tube bending?



A manufacturer can purchase Mandel benders with a computer numeric control system. Mandel benders use a Rotary Draw to support the tube's interior. That support keeps the tube from collapsing during the bending process.

Mandel bending can be used to bend aluminum tubing. Mandel bending is the one method that provides both tight controls and support for the inside of the aluminum tubing. The other bending methods can claim to have only one of those two features.

Hydrofoaming gives the manufacturer a way to support the inside of a tube that needs to be bent. During hydrofoaming, liquid passes through an aluminum tube. It holds the inside walls of the aluminum tubing in place, as they undergo the bending process.

Two other bending methods share with Mandel bending the ability to come under computer control. Those methods are compression bending and roll bending. Unlike Mandel bending, though, neither of those methods can provide support to the interior portion of some aluminum tubing.

Aluminum bending calls for modification of aluminum tubing. Since aluminum is a soft and brittle metal, aluminum bending needs to takes place slowly. If the aluminum tubing has sides that are thicker than one fourth of an inch, then a press brake should be used to complete the tube bending.

A manufacturer should recognize the extent to which use of a press brake alters the method for forming an aluminum tube. The operator of the press brake needs to be seen as an artist. The skill of the press brake operator determines the results of the tube bending process.

Aluminum bending has been combined with a number of the other techniques for modification of aluminum tubing. Aluminum bending can be used in combination with punching and piercing. When those processes are combined the resulting tube contains smooth bore holes.

A manufacturer can take small pieces from a bent aluminum tube. That puts notches in the tube. A manufacturer can also expose a tube to tumbling and vibration either before or after the bending process. Such exposure is called deburring.

Aluminum tubing can be saw cut or drilled within the same facility in which it undergoes aluminum tube bending. Aluminum tubing can be subject to graining and buffing at some point during an aluminum tube bending. Flaring too can modify aluminum tubing after it has passed through a manufacturer's selected bending process.

Like aluminum tube bending, each modification serves a specific function. It determines the location at which the aluminum tubing can be used.