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Bending and Forming Metal – A How-To Series
Forming of materials is all around us. In your surroundings, materials have either been bent, pressed, melted or in some way formed to create your surroundings. A reality in which we could not adapt materials to our needs is incomprehensible. The human race have realised the potential of our surroundings and have continued to mix and match materials and form them to our likings since creating our first tools (the stone tools).
Photo by Krys Amon on Unsplash
Sophisticated Bending – Standing on The Shoulders of Giants
The average human is more or less unaware of the fantastic feats that the industrious groups in society have accomplished: Massive bridges which improved accessibility between locations, wide silos to store crops and large-scale ships which supply civilizations with goods. Now in the more advanced age we’re even developing production robots and even rocket-ships to explore space.
These accomplishments have come to reality as new generations stand on the shoulders of giants. This expression signifies that we’re building upon the science and wisdom from previous generations. The industries and products we see around us today have become increasingly more sophisticated. However, the core principles of material and physics remain unchanged. In conclusion, it is here we must start in our journey to explain how metal is bent and formed and the impressive machines built to do so.
A New Article-series on Bending!
In this series of articles we will take you on a journey that will give you an insight (or refresh your memory!) in :
- how materials behave,
- the core principles of forming or bending metal,
- the different types of bending machines developed to form certain shapes/presentations/forms of steel
- How to purchase a bending machine
- And the future of Bending machines
We explain more about these articles below! But to have any manner in this conversation, allow us to present ourselves…
The Beginning of SweBend
The story of SweBend begins with the development of the new CNC system called
SEVEN. This new powerful Bending CNC was combined with an updated Bending
and Forming machine platform. A platform with superior solutions, more efficient
machine designs and a library of components composed to ensure quality, superior
performance and longevity. In the forming of SweBend, Peter Nilsson, the former
CEO at Roundo AB, was joined by some of Roundo AB´s best, brightest and most
experienced team members. Together they combined their bending machine
expertise – and SweBend was born.
Now Ensuring Precise Bending Results, Worldwide
Now, our sophisticated yet user-friendly machines supply the world’s leading bending companies such as Barnshaws, Danvals, Den Oudsten, Kersten Europe, Sjölund, Van Rijsoort, etc. with perfect bending results which are produced effortlessly yet efficiently. Through innovation, profound quality thinking and unmatched engineering expertise, we take great pride in building machines that have the market’s highest return on investment, a reason why so many loyal clients keep coming back to us to solve their toughest bending problems.
By breaking down our clients’ bending challenges and then explaining to our customers the fundamental theory behind it, we produce modern, powerful and specifically purposed bending machines. The sophisticated functionality of our machines is easily mastered by our clients as we assist them in becoming expert benders.
Swedish Roots Equals Swedish Quality
Located in Sweden, with renowned Swedish quality and a client-focused mindset, our passion for developing high-end bending machines has been recognized by clients all over the world. Through our vast knowledge of bending increasingly challenging materials, we continuously update our machines’ technology with more sensors, better controls and improved software functionality. (Ask us about our renowned CNC system “SEVEN”; we can update old and even analog machines).
For the most Competitive Clients
Our clients value long term quality investments and choose the path of innovation, unmatched expertise and a powerful worldwide support network consisting of an increasing list of trusted resellers. Ask us about our section-, plate- and tube bending rolls, CNC systems, flighting, augers and spiraling machines, special rolls and tooling, and more!
What to expect from this article series:
Below, allow us to present what each article in this series will discuss.
How Materials Behave
In this article we’ll discuss the Mechanical properties of materials such as yield strength (which needs to be conquered in bending!), elasticity (Toughness) and density. But also hardness and the thermal properties of materials. Reviewing and grasping these fundamental concepts of materials is necessary to understand further explanation in our article series on bending. One can not bake a cake without knowing what’s the purpose behind the different ingredients right?
Photo by Екатерина Александрова from Pexels
The Core Principles of Forming or Bending Metal,
We can now discuss how to shape and form material as we now understand the basics of materials. We’ll review Plastic and Elastic bending, which discusses how to actually form material. Futhermore we’ll present Cold forming vs. Hot forming, which treats how heat affects the forming process. Finally we’ll conclude with which limitations in Bending one can encounter. These topics will be sufficient to guide you further along the topic of Bending!
The Different Types of Bending Machines Developed to Form certain Shapes/Presentations/Forms of Steel
In this article we’ll review what Forming & Bending challenges we’re tackling over here at SweBend. We’ll go in-depth on Section Bending/Angle Rolls, Plate Rolls, Machines for Flights, Augers and Spiralling, Plate Straightening Machines and Special Forming Machines.
Most importantly, machines from SweBend all have certain traits in common and are tailored to our clients specific needs. These traits are: easy maintenance, simple operation, machine longevity, high quality and maximum ROI. We’ll discuss compact machines, smart solutions over quick solutions, and certainly performance parts in bending. In addition we will move on to the importance of precision in calculations and why the operator is the most important focus point in designing a machine interface. And finally how we keep our eyes open to new technology to implement.
A Guide to Purchasing the Right Bending Machine
What should one expect from a Bending machine? How does one prepare the right information to get an accurate quote? How should you compare different quotes? What parameters are important and which are not? These are some of the questions we will answer in this tutorial on how to purchase the right machine. Mainly, it is about defining the right specifications and the right capacity for your purpose. With this information, you’re in a much better position to purchase a Bending Machine that will serve you for many years (or even decades) to come.
The future of Bending machines
This final piece concludes our journey from reviewing materials, to learning how to shape them, to understanding the machines available for doing so (and how they are developed!). This piece will be about our estimations for the future. We will discuss where the bending technology is developing towards and what clients should expect from their bending specialist. Furthermore, we’ll highlight the problems in the forming industry will come to face and also where we expect the most innovation to occur.
Finally, we hope you’re as excited for this journey as we are! If there’s something you think we have missed and that we should be covering, please send us a mail letting us know on info@swebend.com.
Stay tuned by checking back here every now and then. You can aslo get notified when a new article is published by entering your email below!
// The SweBend Crew