TPT May 2007

T ube B ending, H ydroforming & E nd- Fo rming

production to the bespoke requirements of many Formula 1 teams. The company has recently received an order for eight machines from a large European manufacturer. The footprint is extremely compact on both Ava-Matic’s single and twin head machines, meaning that the design is especially suitable to form part of a production cell. With a capacity for up to 160mm diameter tube, the machines have extreme efficiency for their size. These features have made the machines ideal for use in all types of applications including the furniture, dairy/ brewery and tube fitting industry. The machine includes a semi-automatic mode that allows the operator to expand or reduce the tube in a series of steps (pulses) to reduce splitting and maintain consistent close tolerance accuracy. All controls have been designed for ease-of-use and rapid setup, with completion of tool changeover in less than a minute. Ava-Matic – UK Fax : +44 1527 518526

Critical manufacturing of hydroformed components

Presses and tooling alone do not satisfy the increasing demand for hydroformed components in today’s automotive manufacturing industry. Prior to downstream processing, nearly every hydroformed component requires critical preliminary or secondary operations such as pre-bending, trimming, shearing, end-forming, piercing, poke yoke inspection and palletizing. fi A hydroformed tube being loaded over a mandrel in a tool that will pierce a radius for later use to weld the bushing at the end of the part. Following punching, the part is driven off of the mandrel and slugs and scrap are shed into a collection system

Wayne Trail Technologies, USA, provides innovative equipment and automation solutions to help complete the tubular hydroform process. The company offers a tubular hydroform solution from stand-alone machines to turnkey system integration and overall line control. The company supplies to a variety of market segments, including metal stamping and forming, tube bending and fabricating, robotics, welding and fixturing, and laser welding and cutting systems.

Wayne Trail Technologies – USA Fax : +1 937 295 2642 Email : info@waynetrail.com Website : www.waynetrail.com

Forming both ends of the exhaust market

Ava-Matic, UK, has been manufacturing its range of tube end-forming machines for over 20 years. This range is supplied for applications including exhausts, for both ends of the spectrum from mass

Email : info@avamatic.co.uk Website : www.avamatic.co.uk

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M ay /J une 2007