Tosec had clear preference for SafanDarley

Tosec is a Zwolle-based company that specialises entirely in sheet-metal working, including cutting, machining, bending and welding.

“We are known for being able to deliver high-quality products quickly,” explains company manager Ruben Nieboer. “These are generally products in small series or single pieces. Often we don’t know today what we are going to make next month. That’s why SafanDarley’s new H-Brake 320T Ultra suits us perfectly.”

Variety is an important factor at Tosec, asNieboer explains: “We consciously choose to produce small and medium-sized series and single pieces, because this ensures variation in the work,setting up the machine every time and looking at drawings and checking products. It can be big, small, thick or thin. We also work with different types of steel, such as very hard steel, such as Hardox, which is difficult to bend,or high-strength steel, which is very tough.

“That’s why no day is ever the same for the people in the office, our setters and our colleagues in the dispatch department,” he adds.“We make a wide variety of products for machine builders, the trailer and crane industry, the agricultural sector and offshore companies, among others. In total, we have over 500 customers throughout the Netherlands.”

Tosec’s relationship with SafanDarley goes back a long way. Still, the company did not go overnight for its most recent investment, assessingseveral competing brands before making a decision.

“In the end, the decisive factor was the opinion of our people on the shop floor,” says Nieboer.“Based on their experiences with the machines and SafanDarley’s service, we chose the new model.”
For further information www.safandarley.com

Unison introduces latest tube bending app

Unison Ltd, a UK manufacturer of tube and pipe bending machines, has launched an all-new version of its free-to-use Tube Bending Application app. With intuitive new features, Unison believes it to be the most advanced app of its kind for users of tube bending machinery.

The app makes it simple and straightforward for tube bending machinery operators to establish the required tooling type, mandrel style, size and material, as well as bend torque and machine size. As an additional benefit, a clear, simple indication of ‘application difficulty’ – the difficulty of bending virtually any metal, wall thickness and diameter – is also available. Where customers are looking to bend new components or start new projects, but do not have the correct tooling or machinery, the app provides a valuable feasibility/viability check, detailing essential data regarding the equipment they will need to use.

In creating their all-new Tube Bending Application app, Unison’s in-house software design team introduced a whole range of user-friendly, intelligent new features. These include a new project-specific filing system and a new dashboard for instant access to tube data, project notes, tooling set-up, mandrel set-up and machine power. There is an updated conversion tool for transforming XYZ co-ordinates into YBC bending data. As in previous versions of the app, users can download reports in PDF format for desktop filing, sharing, review and consideration.

“Since it was first launched some 10 years ago, our free Tube Bending Application app has revolutionised the way customers calculate bending criteria, providing them with a rapid insight into the necessary tooling set-up, machine type and torque required to successfully complete even the most complex of bends,” says Unison Ltd’s joint managing director, Alan Pickering.
For further information www.unisonltd.com

Trumpfunveils bending machine for XXL parts

Trumpf’s latest-generation TruBend 8000 series press brake featuresan 880 mm open height and a stroke of 700 mm, offering an efficient way for operators to bend and remove workpieces that require a large box height. The machine also provides numerous optional extras designed to facilitate the bending of heavy parts, including a bending aid that makes operators’ lives easier by automatically positioning the workpiece for bending. As another benefit, this series of machines can also be equipped with a special tool clamp for XXL parts.

With a press force of 400 tonnes, the first in this new generation of machines is an efficient powerhouse that Trumpf says has no trouble processing short, thick pieces of sheet metal. However, thanks to its 4.40 m bending length, the TruBend 8000 is equally at home with longer, thinner parts. The machine is also suitable for bending high-tensile materials such as Hardox or Weldox engineering steels.

Station bending is another option available with the TruBend 8000. By moving workpieces from one station to the next, each equipped with different upper and lower tools, workers can tackle a range of parts and bending operations without having to change the machine set-up for each operation. This makes the TruBend 8000 particularly suitable for companies that bend large parts in small batches, including fabricators in the vehicle manufacturing, mechanical engineering and building-services sectors, as well as general-purpose job shops.

Numerous automation functions make the TruBend 8000 a suitable candidate for use in smart factories. The most advanced version includes features for fully automated operation provided by Trumpf partner Starmatik, such as a six-axis industrial robot that handles loading and unloading.
For further information www.trumpf.com

New integrated CADCAM bending software

Hacois introducing new bending software, HacoBend Pro,which includes both an in-house developed CAD module and CAM software. With the CAD software, users can draw 3D parts for bending or import and modify external files (STEP/IGS) smoothly and accurately. The CAM module automatically generates a bending program and a correct unfolding of the workpiece.

HacoBend Pro is a software package for the offline programming of press brakes. Through a highly visual easy-to-use interface, Haco says that users can create efficient bending programs in a simple and fast way, allowing operation of the machine in a more optimal way. A smart and fast bend sequence calculation with automatically generated back-gauge positions and an optimised tool set-up contribute to faster machine set-up and cycle times.
In addition, a correct unfolding of the sheet takes into account the type of material and tool selection.

With the integrated CAD module, it is possible to create technically correct bent 3D parts, taking into account the correct bending radii and the required corner cut-outs. Thanks to HacoBend Pro, the company says that users can enjoy greatly reduced programming times, minimised set-up times and right-first-time components.

New features in the HacoBend Pro include: an easy-to-use interface; bend sequence determination with automatic back-gauge calculation; optimised tool set-up; suitability for special bends such as Z bends; dynamic simulation; a user-friendly CAD module for both 2D and 3D design; and correct unfolding in DXF.

Throughout the entire process, the operator/setter receives assistance in selecting tooling, calculating an optimal bending sequence and positioning the back-gauge.
For further information www.kingsland.com

Two new tube benders for Meyer Werft

Around 400 km of tube, 52,000 individual pieces, are installed in a single cruise ship: this is the sheer quantity that the Meyer Werft tube centre manufactures for every ship that Meyer Werft in Papenburg launches. Here, the German shipbuilder is once again relying on two new machines from Schwarze-Robitec. The machines ensure fast, safe and high-quality processing of tubes of various dimensions due to the use of multi-stack tooling, which eliminates a major part of the time-consuming tool-change process.

For more than 17 years, the Papenburg shipbuilder has relied on the tube bending machines from Schwarze-Robitec. Now, the tube bending expert has put two new machines into operation at Meyer Werft: a CNC 100 HD MW bends steel and stainless steel tubes with diameters ranging from 42.2 to 88.9 mm, while a CNC 220 HD MW handles the 114 to 219 mm range.

Both machines are equipped with a so-called five-stack tool tower in the respective diameter range, which allows the majority of the tools to remain set up simultaneously thanks to the multi-level tool design. It is thus possible to bend tubes of different diameters and wall thicknesses without changing tools.

Components such as the pressure die and clamping jaws, as well as the massive bending former, are very large and heavy for the tubes required by the shipbuilding industry. Changing by crane costs time and energy and involves quality risks for the bending outcome, as the tool needs re-adjustment each time. Only the bending mandrel and the collet inserts in the index head require changing by Meyer Werft for a different tube size. The company therefore benefits from enormous setup time savings and a steady, consistently high-quality bending result.
For further information www.schwarze-robitec.com