Staffordshire-based TP Cats, a leading manufacturer and supplier of after-market emission control systems, has invested £160,000 in a tube bending machine and tooling that can produce bends with a 1x diameter centre-line radius.
The machine — a 100TDRE-RBE from Stourbridge-based Tubefab (
www.tubefab.co.uk), which is part of the Addison Machinery Group — is a five-axis double-stack electric hybrid tube bender with electric boost that allows very tight bends to be formed.
TP Cats’ managing director, Paul Stubbs, says: “Today’s drive towards more tightly packed engine bays, wider-diameter exhaust systems, and rapid warm-up times achieved by positioning catalytic converters even closer to exhaust manifolds, is clearly signalling a growing demand for 1-D bending.
“By purchasing the 100TDRE-RBE machine, a 100mm maximum tube diameter 1-D boost bender, we have clearly signalled our intention to lead the way in developing and manufacturing the next generation of after-market catalytic converter and diesel particulate filter — DPF — solutions.”
As well as assisting TP Cats’ research into areas such as multi-branch manifolds and the incorporation of catalytic converters into manifold assemblies, the Tubefab tube bender has also allowed the emission control specialist to begin producing components that it had not previously been able to source.
“We were already bending at 1.5-D, but the latest machine gives us the means to produce flawless 1-D bends. We are currently bending 70mm diameter mild steel, stainless steel and titanium at 1-D, as well as producing complex components involving multiple- and tight-radius bends — with reduced requirements for fabrication and welding.
"We will soon be extending that capability to 80mm-diameter tube.”