Tubing is manufactured as a straight and rigid component, and yet often is required to curve around corners or objects in order to perform its required task. To achieve this, hot or cold form tube bending is undertaken to mold the tubing to the desired shape. Read More…
Leading Manufacturers
Tube Bending Technology
Apple Valley, CA | 760-948-4220As tube fabrication experts, we can solve your fabrication problems with ease! We take our product quality seriously, as we started our company sourcing tube products for the Apollo project.
Sharpe Products
New Berlin, WI | 800-879-4418Founded in 1990, Sharpe Products is an ISO 9001:2015 certified company specializing in industrial and commercial pipe and tube bending, laser cutting, end-forming or other custom fabrication services. In addition, we offer a robust line of architectural handrail fittings and accessories such as brackets, connectors, disks, end-caps, flanges, newel caps and spheres.
Chicago Metal Rolled Products
Chicago, IL | 800-798-4504Chicago Metal Rolled Products is a tube fabricator specializing in tube bending, pipe bending, beams, channels, rolling, and we offer tube assemblies and pipe coils. Our sheet metal pipe fabrication includes welding and lockseaming. We provide the best in service, quality, delivery and value.
Unity Tube, Inc.
East Palestine, OH | 800-496-1364Unity Tube provides custom bending, coiling and fabrication services. From single piece prototypes to high volume production, we can do it all. Besides manufacturing helically wound finned tubing with a range of fit-to-tube attachment methods, we also offer precise tube forming and have the capabilities to design, cut, drill, flare, deburr, paint, finish and weld a quality product for you.
AWC Industries
Chicago, IL | 773-745-0116AWC Industries is your one stop source for metal fabrication and finishing. Specializing in tube fabrication and finishing as well as sheet metal and wire processes, our experienced engineers provide the quality craftsmanship you deserve using state of the art CNC machining. AWC we believe that outstanding customer service has and will always be the key to our continuing success.
American Metal Products
Portland, OR | 800-503-5060AMPCO provides quality custom tube and pipe bending services with seamless and wrinkle-free bends, as well as multiple bends and compound tooling. Our machines and technicians can handle tube diameters from 5/8” to 8” so call us today if you need one or 1,000 parts, and we’ll go to work for you.
Tube Bending – United Metal Fabricators, Inc.Canopies, trusses, bridges, sculptures, exercise equipment and furniture, plumbing and machinery all require angles and bends in tubing, and industries such as agricultural, construction, automotive and others all depend upon and use several lengths and diameters of tubing on a daily basis. Tubes can be bent either manually or automatically, or using a combination of both methods.
Press bending is a common method in which a die in the shape of the desired bend is forced against the pipe, causing it to form the same angle as the die. Some tube bending machines use mandrels for the process of mandrel bending and to create a cleaner, more uniform bend. This is undertaken while the tubing is being formed and thus is often a hot forming process. Other machines take pre-formed tubing and force it to bend around a series of rollers, in a similar process to tube rolling, or using a die and compression handle to bend the pipe.
The maximum angle at which a pipe is bent is usually 90°, although it can range greatly depending on intended use. A length of tube can be bent a single time, or multiple times if needed, but due to the lack of internal support within a tube, the bending often results in a distortion of the circle cross-section into a ovular shape. This deformation is seen more clearly on tubing with thin walls as they provide less resistance to structural change and are more prone to distortion.
The pipe bending process, whether it is hot or cold, alters the properties of the pipe, and therefore different factors needs to be taken into consideration as part of the manufacturing decisions. The wider a pipe is, the smaller the ratio of distortion will be according to pipe capacity etc.
Compression occurs within the pipe as it is bent, and this can result in wrinkles or waves on the surface of the pipe which can interfere with other processes. Bending the tubing can create areas of weakness but this is dependent on the quality of the machinery used, the complexity of the bend and the skill or experience of the workmen.