All-electric CNC tube-bending machines from Scarborough-based Unison Ltd (
www.unisonltd.com) have helped the specialist tube manipulation company Toolspec Manufacturing to implement a flexible manufacturing strategy, enhance production capability and win major new orders.
Operations director Howard Dean says: “Moving from hydraulic to all-electric tube-bending technology is like coming in from the Dark Ages. The hitherto complex art of precision hydraulic tube bending, known only to highly skilled operatives, is replaced by a system that is both easy to understand and to use.
“We took delivery of two Unison machines last year; and by integrating them with our CAD and co-ordinate measuring facilities, we have implemented a significantly more efficient and flexible manufacturing system. We can now produce prototype parts in a fraction of the time that it took with our old hydraulic tube benders, with significantly reduced labour costs and much less scrap material.”
Founded in 1961 as a tool-making company, Toolspec has grown to become a leading supplier of specialist parts that involve precision manipulation and welding. Its customers include several ‘blue-chip’ manufacturers of luxury cars and construction machinery for world markets; typical products include under-chassis cross-body braces for cars, complex door assemblies and safety cages, plus hydraulic brake pipes and coolant pipes for a variety of vehicle types.
The company had been a user of hydraulic tube benders, which can be difficult and time-consuming to set up. Indeed, it would typically take over an hour to get a machine ready for producing a complex component, followed by multiple trial runs and re-adjustments to ensure that production parts met specification.
Moreover, process variables such as hydraulic-fluid temperature and pressure would vary during a shift, making it difficult to maintain bend consistency throughout a production run — prompting Toolspec to investigate alternative types of tube-bending technology.
The company’s bending supervisor visited Unison’s UK factory; and despite having over 30 years’ experience of hydraulic tube benders, he was immediately convinced of the superiority of all-electric machines. Toolspec subsequently ordered two machines from Unison, to replace a pair of early-generation hydraulic benders.
Both the new machines, which were installed at Toolspec’s Luton facility last May, are 50mm Breeze models; they are equipped with multi-stack tool heads, which provide fast and easy tool change-over. Furthermore, both machines are fitted with Unison’s laser-controlled spring-back correction system; they are also networked to Toolspec’s CAD facilities and to a Romer portable CMM (data obtained by the CMM from the first manufactured part is used, if necessary, to correct any errors and to automatically adjust the bending machine so that the second and all subsequent parts are manufactured correctly).
With its all-electric machines, Toolspec can produce prototype parts to customer specification in about 30min — and undertake the volume production of parts with linear tolerances as tight as 1mm and bend angles to within 0.25deg. This new capability helped the company to win a new contract worth some £500,000 per year from a manufacturer of agricultural vehicles.