Unison to distribute Advanced Tubular Technologies’ VTube-Step and VTube-Laser software

Both packages accelerate the fabrication of shapes on tube bending machines by importing CAD files and calculating the data needed to put a tubular part into production, says Unison. VTube-Laser extends this capability to include laser and ball-probe measurement of physical tube bends for verification, qualification and bender correction, as well as for reverse engineering purposes by translating data from co-ordinate measurement systems. VTube-Step enables users to import any solid model CAD file that uses industry-standard STEP or IGES formats and extract the tube data in minutes. The software automatically collects all the surfaces, 3D line and arc geometry to calculate the XYZ co-ordinates of the bends and extract the centreline of the tube. The model and the tube shapes can be viewed directly on the PC monitor, so that users can choose the particular tube they wish to measure, and the thousands of lines and points that make up the display geometry can be examined in detail to verify that the calculated centreline will produce the desired bend. Tube shape data can also be entered manually, taking the necessary measurements from a CAD drawing. Once the user is satisfied with the data, it can be exported straight to the bending machine; the software uses the Supravision network protocol which is the bender data file format employed on all Unison tube bending machines. This ability to open a CAD file, look at the drawing and then export it in a suitable format provides users with a time-saving advantage, says Unison, against having to redraw the model using a 3D mechanical CAD package such as SolidWorks. VTube-Laser software provides the same file handling capabilities as VTube-Step, but further extends the functionality to include physical measurement of tubes that have been bent on a machine. Designed for use with the laser and tactile measurement systems produced by Faro Technologies, the software is compatible with a wide range of the company's ScanArm products. These enable users to scan tube shapes very quickly and accurately, using the measurements to verify that all bends have been formed as specified. The retrieved measurement data can be used to build an image of the tube that can then be overlaid on the image created from the imported solid model CAD file, providing an instant visual comparison. The two images are colour-coded, clearly highlighting any deviations between the two and showing whether the tube bends are in or out of tolerance. In addition to verifying that tubes have been bent to specification, VTube-Laser offers other powerful functions. A tubular part can be cloned – or reverse-engineered – in minutes, simply by replacing the master data from the CAD file with the measured data. Users can also employ the measured values to apply fixed or proportional 'spring-back' values to automatically adjust the bending machine's parameters to compensate for the tendency of tubing materials to spring back slightly after they have been bent.