TPT July 2013

Bending, end forming and swaging

Further growth for Omni-x THE family owned business Omni-x has grown from a three-man operation into a large manufacturer of tube bending tools, with manufacturing locations in Colorado, the Czech Republic and Mexico. In addition it is in the initial stages of establishing manufacturing locations in the expanding markets of India and China, with a target start up date of 2015. With its current three locations it is able to provide localised service and products on a global scale. Since 1987 the company has specialised in thedesignandmanufacture of consumable mandrels and wiper dies, as well as simple and complex multi- stack compound bending dies. Serving all industries, including automotive, aerospace, HVAC, shipyard, furniture and others, it provides solutions to any bending challenge for any size or shape tube/pipe and for any make/model tube bender. In addition to its time tested and innovative designs the company assists with process development, vendor managed inventory and consulting. The company continuously strives to improve its processes, customer service and

overall value to the customer so that it exceeds their expectations. Omni-x has announced that it has increased its CNC lathe and milling capabilities with the acquisition of four new machines in the Czech Republic facility based in Brno. This will ensure it can continue to deliver the first class service its customers have come to expect.

Omni-x – Czech Republic Email: info@omni-x.cz Website: www.omni-x.cz

Bending of variable radius pipes ONE of the major challenges for pipe bending is pipeswith a variable radius and rotation during the bending sequence. Not only do the rollers themselves need to be positioned with the utmost precision, but the calculations of each position at every moment of the bending process are complex and involved. In order to facilitate the bending of such complex geometries,

also provides facilities to modify the geometry manually. Combined with 3D models of the machine and the tooling, the software graphically simulates the bending process, detecting collisions with potential interference points in the machine’s environment. Just like 3R’s RONIKolli7 software, RONIFreeformManager then attempts to find an alternative bending sequence that avoids these collisions. If a feasible sequence is found the CNC files are generated and sent to the machine. After bending, the pipe’s measured result can be compared to the desired pipe through a comparison report. Another feature of the RONIFreeformManager is that it corrects the bending data by using a smooth interpolation method, which means that the corrections for material factors are precise, even if only very few test measurements are taken for the according material. In fact, the software can be interfaced with measuring software to correct the bending values for subsequent pipes based on a comparison of the target geometry with the actual geometry after bending. This allows for faster calculation of the correct CNC-data and less need for test bends. The software is intended to be efficient and versatile while still remaining intuitive and easy to operate. This means that an operator does not require intensive training over multiple weeks in order to learn how to use the software.

3R software solution developed RONIFreeformManager, which both calculates the CNC-data for bending and checks the bending process for collision. The software can be used on both left- and right-bending machines with one or more bending levels. It also supports combination machines, which can perform both freeform roller bending and traditional rotary draw- or push- bending. RONIFreeformManager imports the pipe data from CAD-files to create a model of the pipe geometry and

3R software solution – Germany Website: www.3-r.de

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J uly 2013