Part Development

Each part is unique. We draw upon of 30 plus years of engineering experience and talent to manufacture parts to customer drawings. Using the latest CAD software programs we design and develop manufacturing processes to fabricate a variety of tubular parts. A fully staffed and equipped tool room allows us to maintain our production floor efficiency, make newly designed tooling, and build specialty equipment as required.

Tooling Inventory

Since 1968 we have manufactured thousands of different parts. As a result we have an extensive inventory of tooling including bending dies, mandrels, grippers, end forming punches, cut off grips and bushings, and wire forming dies. Please contact our sales department with a Request for Quotation to determine if we have the tooling required to fabricate your part.

General Fabrication Rules

Tube Bending: Standard Centerline Radius (CLR) of tube bending is a 2 to 1 ratio, or twice the OD of the tubing (.500” OD tube = 1.000” CLR). This is somewhat influenced by wall thickness, material type, and temper. As the CLR ratio to OD is reduced plug mandrels, ball mandrels, and special bending tools are required. The minimum CLR ratio is 1 to 1, but this is not recommended for most tubing applications. It should be noted that a tight CLR, bent at 180 degrees, might require a split die so that the part can be removed from the die set.The maximum CRL ratio is complete subject to the bending process, a large CRL arc requires coiling rolls to fabricate.

OD	Wall	CLR	CLR Ratio	Tooling
1.00	.035	3.00	2 to 1	Standard Bend Die
1.00	.035	1.50	1.5 to 1	Std w/Bend Mandrel
1.00	.035	1.00	1 to 1	Special Bend Die, 3 Ball Mandrel, Die Shoe, Pressure Assist
1.00	.083	1.50	1.5 to 1	Standard Bend Die

Tube End Forming: Tube End Forming is only limited by the imagination of the part component engineer. Material type, wall thickness, physical properties, temper, and fabrication shape govern material flow limitations. The fabrication process and equipment dictates tolerances.

• Expansion / Reduction - Normal expansion or reduction percentages are 15% per reduction stage. A total percentage of 45% is considered an industry standard. Greater expansion or reduction percentages are possible given wall thickness, material type, and intermediate annealing operations. We have achieved as much as 100% in special applications. Note: During the reduction operation the wall thickens, expansion thins the wall.

Cutting: There are three general concerns for cutting. Length tolerance, squareness, and burr. Different cutting processes yield different results. We select the appropriate cutting process based upon these restriction, length of part, volume of production, and size of tubing.