The machine, a 100mm (4”) single-stack model, will be on display at Unison’s FABTECH Booth after which it will be installed at Sharpe Products’ Wisconsin-based manufacturing plant. It will be the ninth Unison Breeze tube bender that has been purchased by Sharpe Products since 2003 and will be used to provide additional capacity for bending tubular components for the company’s extensive customer base.
Sharpe Products and UK-based tube bending machinery manufacturer Unison Ltd have a long and proud history of working together. Sharpe’s president and CEO, Paul Krickeberg, was an early convert to the idea of all-electric tube bending and bought one of the very first British-built Unison Breeze machines in the United States.
“This latest Unison Breeze tube bending machine will help to support our ability to offer short lead times and consistent results – attributes that are essential to our customers,” said Krickeberg. “We’ve worked with Unison for numerous years and look forward to installing this next generation machine at our plant.”
“We’re absolutely delighted that Sharpe Products has chosen to purchase yet another Unison Breeze all-electric tube bending machine,” says Stuart Singleton, VP of Unison Tube LLC. “As you can imagine, such impressive repeat orders are an incredible testimony to the faith a customer places in our machine technologies, operating software and product support.
"The new 100mm Breeze machine will bring valuable extra capacity to one of our longest-standing customers in the US. Equipped with the latest version of our Unibend control system, it will deliver cycle time speed improvements in the region of 25% compared to earlier versions. It also incorporates innovative new teach routines and simulation features.”
UK-based Unison Ltd invented ultra-precise, all-electric tube and pipe bending, and the Breeze 100mm (maximum tube diameter) machine is one of its flagship models. Just like all Unison Breeze tube bending machines, the 100mm/4” Breeze offers rapid setup, fast tooling changes, exceptional power, rigid mechanical design, and all-electric control for right-first-time repeat sub-contract work, or immediately after producing a single trial part.
These are all attributes that Unison Ltd believes make its Breeze models the ultimate tube manipulation machines for businesses specialising in frequently changing, small-to-medium batch production runs.
Other single-stack Unison Breeze machines operated by Sharpe Products include 80mm (3”) and 100mm (4”) variants. Sharpe also has 76mm (3”), 80mm (3”) and 130mm (5”) multi-stack Breeze machines – each able to accommodate several tools for rapid changeover between bending cycles.
