EoW May 2008

wire bending & forming

The right bends for perfectly aligned pins William Hughes Ltd is well known for its specialist skills in the design and manufacture of bent wire parts. When a leading supplier of moulded electrical components for diesel engines needed to manufacture a precision plug assembly using wire pins, it turned to the design and application engineers at William Hughes to provide an accurate and cost effective solution. The special plug is used in the engine management system and the components needed to be resistant to vibration and high temperatures, whilst providing a reliable electrical contact. The design of the plug is based on four nickel silver pins approximately 75mm long which need to be positioned very accurately in the moulding. Each of the four pins is supplied to William Hughes as a straight turned part and it is the company’s role to apply two high accuracy bends to each pin to ensure that the tails of the pins are perfectly aligned when they are inserted in the moulding. The plug manufacturer had tried various methods of bending the pins but none gave reliable and accurate results. Variations in the pin material, and the bending process itself, meant that instead of the pin tails being parallel, they were out of alignment by several degrees making them unusable.

High accuracy bends to a nickel silver pin ▲ ▲ achieved by William Hughes Ltd

that can work with the wire pins allowing adjustments to cater for the varying characteristics. Four interlinked machines are used to produce the pins in sets. The machine, specially designed by William Hughes, ensures that each pin is positioned correctly before it is bent. As a further check for quality, each movement of the four pins is checked electronically to ensure accuracy and consistency. William Hughes Ltd – UK Fax : +44 1963 363640

To achieve the desired result, each of the four pins, left, right, upper and lower have to be bent in a different way. Slight variations in the material used to make up the different batches of pins require the bending process to be easily adjustable to accommodate different ‘springback’ characteristics. The design and application engineers at William Hughes used their specialist knowledge of spring materials and production processes to provide an adaptable and accurate solution. This involved the design of a special machine

Email : sales@wmhughes.co.uk Website : www.wmhughes.co.uk

Hand feed cold formers from Israel

Videx is offering a new line of single or multiple die hand feed cold formers. The machines are designed for production of small and medium size batches of long headed, shouldered or extruded parts which can be either straight or bent.

The Videx cold formers are available with 1, 2 or 3 heading stations and in tonnage rating from 50 tons to 300 tons. A threading station is optional on all models. The feed of the parts is done either from the front (for straight parts) or from the side (for bent parts that need to be collated or headed close to the bend). Machines are designed for a very quick and simple change-over. The whole gripper die block lifts up pneumatically and die change can be performed outside the machine. The heading tools are reachable from the side and can be changed in a couple of minutes. The position of the blank is precise due to the retractable positive stop and the stroke is fully adjustable by turning a big wheel at the back of the machine. When supplied as a fully automatic machine, the machine will also straighten, cut to length and optionally thread the parts and bend them. Videx Ltd – Israel Fax : +972 3536 4802

Email : videx@videx.co.il Website : www.videx.co.il

New line in single or multiple die hand feed cold formers ▲ ▲

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EuroWire – May 2008