A little over a year since acquiring
Pneuform Machines Ltd, a wire and small-tube bending machinery manufacturer, Scarborough-based
Unison Ltd, the inventor of all-electric tube manipulation, has introduced a number of significant improvements to the entire Pneuform range.
Unison’s joint managing director Alan Pickering said: “We are passionate about quality. In fact, it was the quality of Pneuform’s machines that first caught our attention and attracted us to the idea of bringing the brand into the Unison family. We did, however, recognise that we could add considerable user benefits to each Pneuform machine by incorporating many of the features that are standard with our Unibend tube-bending CNC and Opt2Sim Suite tube simulation software.”
With that objective in mind, over the last few months Unison’s automation and software development teams have been busy adapting the company’s Unibend control and Opt2Sim software to create a proprietary solution especially for the Pneuform range of wire and small tube bending machines. The key focus of their work has surrounded ease-of-use, production uplift and low cost of ownership.
Called Unibend-Wire, the resultant integrated CNC and 3-D simulation system is quite possibly the most advanced, most efficient and most user-friendly control available on any wire and small diameter tube bending machine. Intelligent data input tools and direct-from-CAD import features vastly reduce the time taken from 'blank sheet' concept to full production, regardless of material or complexity of bends, with Unison's Opt2Sim Suite of simulation software tools checking and correcting parts before they reach the shopfloor. Part cycle times have also been improved by streamlining any non-added-value moves between bends — the majority of which are now fully automated.
Digital twinA new integrated console, with 15in touchscreen, enables operators to verify the accuracy of the parts they wish to make in crisp, clear 3D on a ‘digital twin’ of their Pneuform machine. Powerful bend menus accelerate the creation of repeat, coiled and rectangular part forms, while the industry standard YBC file format mirrors that used on Unison’s all-electric Breeze range of tube-bending machines. Batch processing of associated parts or entire shift runs is delivered through a few easy steps, and right-first-time bends are assured by the inclusion of springback compensation, supported by easy characterisation of materials to be bent.
Mr Pickering continued: “From simple, single line YBC file formats, supported by powerful, easy-to-use bending instructions, to highly reliable Yaskawa drives and Unison’s advanced remote support application, we have done a great deal to underline Pneuform’s position as a leading manufacturer of quality wire and small-diameter tube-bending machines.”
He concluded: “Perhaps most significant of all, however, we have introduced all these product enhancements without increasing our prices. It is our way of ensuring that Pneuform machines remain highly accessible to manufacturers and sub-contractors around the world.”