Unison bending machine redesign optimises axes and exploits torque
1 min read
Unison's latest all-electric bending machine features mechanical architecture and control software improvements. The company says that the redesign reduces the time required for all the intermediate handling and movement of the tooling configuration tasks performed before and after a bend by as much as 40%. There can be four or five such auxiliary movements for each bending move when users are fabricating tubular parts with several bends so the benefits multiply.
The machine architecture will be fitted as standard on all of Unison's all-electric bending machines, which are available for tube/pipe diameters from 16 to 220 mm).
Cycle time reductions derive from an optimisation in shape and size of all of the machine's auxiliary mechanical axes to reduce their mass and inertia. These axes are also driven at faster speeds – by applying more torque – to accelerate and decelerate at faster rates and to achieve higher top speeds. This use of higher torque does not increase machine cost, as Unison exploits the peak output characteristics of its servomotors to deliver the torque for the tiny fractions of time required.
On some of these axes, Unison has also improved the mechanical dynamics by changing the type of gearing mechanism employed. The design of the main bending arm axis of the machine remains as it is, as the speed of the tube bending task itself is almost invariably limited by the characteristics of the material being bent.
