Tube Bending Services
Whether your metal project requires an angular arc or a bold bend, mechanised tube bending is the industry leading way of crafting the perfect curvature. Despite the name, this service is not just limited to cylindrical tube sections and Elimold are adept at bending square, rectangular and even oval shaped tubing. Our tube bending service is available for all of our metal section stocks, from mild steel, to stainless steel, brass and aluminium.
Precise Fabrication of Custom Tube Bending Parts
As a full-service metal fabricator at Elimold, we provide comprehensive solutions to improve your processes and increase profitability. If you’re looking for a reliable source for pipe bending, pipe forming, and pipe cutting, we’re your one-stop shop for everything you need. We eliminate timely and costly steps in the supply chain while delivering high-quality tubular parts and products that meet your specific requirements. No matter the size of your pipe bending project, Elimold is ready to help.
Our CNC mandrel pipe bending services Aluminum, copper and stainless steel pipe up to 3 inches in diameter are precision bent at our facility. Our machine shop is equipped with a range of manual, CNC, hydraulic and pneumatic pipe bending machines to meet different requirements. We keep mandrels and molds in stock to process tubes at low mold costs.
We offer CNC pipe bending services for pipes with circular, rectangular and square cross-sections with specified tolerances. Custom metal pipe bending machines are used for rectangular or square pipes. Our hydraulic tube bending machines produce tubular components that meet strict military specification standards. Elimold also has end-finishing machines for trimming, swaging, reducing and expanding pipe components. Special assembly operations such as bending, assembly and brazing can also be handled.
Tube Bending Capabilities
- We can bend tubes as small as 3/8 inches in diameter and as large as 3 inches in diameter.
- We have a large inventory of bend radius tooling in stock, which means faster turn around times.
- Our state-of-the-art machinery includes laser scanning and closed look feedback systems, which means our bending equipment is constantly being monitored and is continuously improving the bending process — resulting in a higher quality product.
- Our innovative five and six axis lasers can add holes and slots to your part before or after the bending process.
Tube Bending Material Options
- Alloy 40 (21Cr-6Ni-9Mn Stainless Steel): Alloy steels are ideal for pipes in energy applications because they can withstand high temperatures.
- Aluminum: Aluminum is not as strong as steel, but is 1/3 of the weight, making it ideal for aerospace. Aluminum is a good conductor, and dissipates heat well. There are seven aluminum alloys with specific properties and purposes:
Series 1xxx: Corrosion resistant and easy to fabricate.
Series 2xxx: High machinability at elevated temperatures, but low resistance to corrosion.
Series 3xxx: Normally used in bending, with good corrosion resistance and machinability.
Series 4xxx: Low melting point, used primarily for welding.
Series 5xxx: High strength, corrosion resistance, formability, and weldability.
Series 6xxx: High strength, corrosion resistance, formability, and weldability, and able to be heat treated.
Series 7xxx: High strength, hard to bend.
- Brass: Brass is malleable, hard, and ideal for rolling, drawing, and bending projects. Brass is also a versatile material with varying characteristics depending on the copper and zinc content.
- Copper: Copper is easily formed, ductile, corrosion-resistant, and malleable. It is also one of the best conductors of electricity. As a result of copper tubing’s high conductivity and malleability, careful consideration must be put into the end-use, as thermal changes coupled with movement may cause fractures.
- Copper-Nickel: By adding nickel to copper, the newly formed alloy has improved strength and resistance to oxidation and corrosion. A 70/30 alloy is ideal for marine applications with exposure to seawater.
- Hastelloy: Hastelloy is a nickel- and cobalt-based alloy. It’s resistant to corrosion and easy to weld.
- Inconel: A superalloy, Inconel is designed to use in extreme temperatures. It’s a nickel- and chromium-based, which makes it resistant to corrosion.
- Stainless Steel: Stainless steel is popular because of its versatility. It can be used in interior and exterior applications and is water- and corrosion-resistant.
- Steel: Carbon Steels are predominantly a mixture of iron and carbon. The ratio of these two elements affects the hardness, strength, ductility, and ease of bend. The higher the carbon content, the more difficult the product will be to bend.
They are further classified below:
Low Carbon Steel – ≤ .3% Carbon
Medium Carbon Steel – .3 -.6% Carbon
High Carbon Steel – ≥ .6%
- Titanium: Titanium has a high strength to density ratio and is resistant to corrosion with a useful life span of 20-40 years. Used often in Navel and Aerospace applications.
Bend Requirements
Elimold can support a wide variety of bend requirements–certain parameters are helpful when building a quote, including the following specifications:
- Center line radius
- Bend radii
- Tube profile (round, square, etc.)
- Tube wall thickness
- Tube diameter (based on schedule or wall thickness)
- Type of bend (‘L bend’, ‘U bend’, ‘S bend’, ‘Coil bend’, or a combination of bends)
- Project volume (can handle thousands of pieces)
Tube and Pipe End Finishing Services
Elimod offers finishing options for tube and pipe ends to address all of your product needs. Among the options available are the following:
- Reducing or expanding end sizes
- Beveling
- Chamfering
- Facing
- Flanging
- Flaring
- Flattening
- Swaging
- Reaming
- Bead creation
- Roll Grooving
End finishing can improve the overall quality of the product, help assure tight tolerance fitment, and generally reduce the time needed for installation or set-up of the end product. Elimold also offers a bead blast surface finishing option, which can provide a bright peened exterior surface or prepare the tube for other surface finishing operations.
Industry
Projects across all industries can benefit from this process. Motorsport and automotive, musical instruments, building frames, lamp stands and all manner of furniture is typically formed by tube bending, so regardless of your industry or project size, Metal Supplies tube bending may be the service that checks all of your production boxes.
We are happy to undertake this process for both domestic and commercial clients, so if you’re a big corporation or a weekend hobbyist we can perform small or large tube bending orders.
- Aerospace & Defense
- Medical & Pharmaceutical
- Architectural & Lighting
- Automotive
- Oil & Gas
- Aviation
- Marine & Shipbuilding
- Construction
Begin your Tube Bending project with us today!
Looking for a partner for your next tube bending project? Turn to the experts at Elimold! We provide tube bending services to various industries, especially the food processing industry. We can bend tubing made from various materials with round, rectangular, or square cross-sections and diameters up to 3 inches. We also offer various end-finishing capabilities (e.g., flaring, swaging, reducing, and expanding) and special assembly capabilities (e.g., bending, assembly, and brazing).