When it comes to making repeatable organic shapes, I prefer to make a bending jig using a piece of scrap board and screws. These are awesomely long springs(~30") so you can use them with most bending jigs too, if you are worried about kinking your pipe. These springs are designed for use with PVC and are available at 1/2", 3/4", 1" and 1 1/2" diameters, and instead of heating the section your trying to bend, you can send hot air from the heat gun down the center of the pipe. If you enjoy this method, there are specialty bending springs that are a bit more expensive. Allow a length of pipe on each side of the bend, I like to leave about four inches because it can be tricky to control the position of the bend with this method. Your PVC may stretch slightly while it is bending, so it is best to make a cut after it's cooled. It is not advised that you cut before your bend. Hold in place the pipe begins to cool and your bend is held rigid. At that point, you can begin to shimmy the bend into the pipe heating more if needed to flex the bend further. You'll begin to feel when the pipe is getting hot and malleable, the spring doesn't spin so freely. It should kind of feel like you're roasting a marshmallow on a campfire, but with a respirator on. Turn on the heating gun, I set mine up on a table and hold the pipe over the hot air, and begin to slowly rotate your pipe. Insert the spring into your length of pipe and bend the wire's tail around the pipe so that the spring stays in place.
PLASTIC TUBE BENDING FREE
We can prevent kinked or collapsed pipe by inserting an extension spring into the pipe.īegin by creating a wire leash for your spring, so that you may easily free the it from your bend after it has cooled. This also means that the walls of the PVC pipe are more susceptible to kinking. In general, CNC bending is bending made more productive and efficient by using automation.To make quick bends in PVC, like an eyeballed 90° bend, consider the using this technique.įor this demonstration, the following tools and consumables are used:įor small diameters of PVC pipe, the wall thickness is much thinner than other larger diameters making the pipe easy to manipulate with minimum heat. Then the machine performs those operations automatically.ĬNC controlled tube bending machines usually use a combination of presses and rollers to guide the tubes and pipes along the process.
PLASTIC TUBE BENDING SOFTWARE
The operator uses the programming software to feed the data of the operation or operations required. Common CNC machines include lathes, drills and other machining tools. It is a term frequently used in manufacturing to describe machines that work with a programming software to perform their operations. This is possible because of CNC bending machines.ĬNC stands for Computer Numerically Controlled. Today, most bending only needs human assistance, not constant guidance. At the same time, a wide range of pipe sizes fit the same machine and a large variety of bend angles are available.Īpplications: large industrial structural parts, short radius bends, heating system parts, thick-walled parts, etc. It is an accurate method that does not require mandrels. Applying the pressure to a hot workpiece allows for energy-efficient bending. At the bending point, there is an induction coil. With induction bending, a profile is drawn through a die. The mandrel’s objective is keeping the tube from collapsing. Bending a small radius, thin tubes or harder materials can result in an unsatisfactory outcome. In bending steel and aluminium tubes, a mandrel is necessary for more difficult jobs. Thus, adding a wiper die just after the bend die helps to smooth the surface. It may result in wrinkles with large deformations. The purpose is to avoid the formation of any humps on the inside radius.ĭuring the forming process, the material turns plastic during bending. Wiper DieĪ wiper die places just after the bend die. The pressure die makes sure the tube follows the bend die’s contour. Its main purpose is to prevent the pipe from slipping. The clamp die presses the tube onto the bend die. The selection of die is very important, as the tube’s inside radius depends on it. The tube clamps to the bend die and the drawing process produces the necessary bend. The bend die, also known as the bend form or the radius die, is the most important part of a rotary-draw bending machine.