Bell Steel Fabrications opts for BLM all-electric tube bender

Specialising in the fabrication of steel and stainless steel products, the 22-employee company offers tube/pipe bending; sheet metal forming, bending and rolling; plasma cutting; MIG, TIG and seam welding; and structural steel fabrication to a world-wide customer base. Pump bases, road ramps, generating set bases and lifting frames represent just a small selection of Bell's fabrication output, with the list extending to large jigs and fixtures for the automotive industry, aggregate storage hoppers, and numerous stainless steel products for customers in the pharmaceutical, telecommunications and food processing/packaging sectors. According to Matthew Bell, director of operations, this new machine "is the best and most versatile CNC tube bending machine on the market. It is the ideal choice for an ambitious expansion programme that is focused on opening up new business opportunities in product sectors as diverse as street furniture and aerospace components". The decision to invest in a tube bender that enables multi-radius and variable radius bending of the same tube to take place in a single set-up was made easier by the fact that, for many years, Bell has designed and manufactured its 'own brand' stainless steel silencer and exhaust systems for classic cars. Success in this niche sector eventually prompted the subcontract manufacture of commercial, marine and industrial silencer and exhaust systems up to 6 m long. "Bell is a family-owned business that could justify the decision to purchase a new tube bender on the requirements of our own product work," said Ron Bell, chairman and founder. "However, it is really about expanding our business opportunities here in the UK and abroad." Flexibility is the keynote of the company's approach, and this was a further incentive in the eventual choice of tube bender. "We don't do large-batch production as such," explains Matthew Bell. "Running a batch of several hundred parts and then switching, say, to a one-off is a production sequence that may be repeated several times during the working day. Set-up times on the ELECT 80 are massively shorter than on our existing hydraulic tube bender and, because it is an all-electric machine, it is extremely accurate and repeatable when it comes to repeat set-ups."