Unison to deliver all-electric tube bending machine to Holland

The order follows an extensive investigation of tube bending technology by the Dutch firm, during which the company joined a Unison Technology Tour and visited some of Unison's customers to gain an insight into how they are using all-electric tube bending techniques to reduce scrap, improve productivity and conserve energy. Van Rijsoort is one of Europe's leading metal bending companies, with a long background in the architectural metalwork sector, and in manufacturing complex industrial tubular assemblies. The company operates a large number of machines, including four hydraulically driven tube benders and 10 round rail roll bending systems. However, this is the first time the company has invested in all-electric, servomotor-driven tube bending machinery and which is scheduled for delivery in Q4 this year. "Some 60% of our production involves bending round tubes, for diverse applications ranging from building construction and general metalwork features like railings and staircases to large pipelines," explains Van Rijsoort's financial director, Martin Swinkels. "And about two thirds of that work is on tubes with diameters below 130 mm. Our customers are demanding ever higher high levels of bend precision, which was our prime reason for looking at alternatives to hydraulic tube benders, which have reached the limit of their accuracy. "We chose Unison for several reasons. Aside from a need to start migrating to more controllable tube bending machines that offer higher throughput, greater accuracy and better energy efficiency, we wanted to partner with a company that has a genuine history of innovation. We have found Unison to be extremely helpful, with an extensive knowledge of tube bending and which it is prepared to share with customers." The Breeze 130 tube bender ordered by Van Rijsoort is a high capacity multi-stack machine capable of bending up to 130 mm diameter tubes at rates of up to 36° per second. Like all Unison all-electric tube benders, it only consumes significant amounts of power during the bending process itself, making it around an order of magnitude more energy efficient than a hydraulically driven system. This particular machine is equipped with a custom digital inclinometer, to automatically check the angle of three dimensional bends during manufacture, and with a unique laser correction system that overcomes the problem of variances in the 'spring-back' characteristics of metal tubes from different production batches or suppliers. The laser correction system was one of Van Rijsoort's key technical reasons for ordering the machine. Some of its customers use robotic welding machines to fabricate items such as fences from sections of bent metal tubes, and if there is any inaccuracy in the bends, the sections are impossible to align correctly and are scrapped. Achieving the necessary bend accuracy for this application with hydraulic tube bending machines is proving increasingly difficult.