Bending Aluminium Tube

Hello,

The best method would be to use a CNC Bending machine. If that is not available try a standard pipe bender. I have been somewhat successful with smaller diameters when I have used sand to fill the inside of the tube to stop the tube failing during bending. Stainless steel bends very nicely if that could be used as an alternative. Good Luck

no deformation is imposible.

if you allow a little variation, them there is a widelly used 3 roll bending technique.

have a nice day

Pack it full of sand first, if you can SEAL the ends before bending then remove or cut them off after fill it totally full of water, it is critical that you have no air which can compress to allow bending.

Damp sand packs well...

GO SLOW as you work it down, hurrying will be the biggest risk to tube collapse

To avoid distortion on OD, one requires to fill the tube with very fine sand or Woods Alloy. Woods Alloy melts at around 70 Deg C & solidifies without any shrinkage. Melt the alloy & pour into the tube. The tube can then be bent with any tube bending machine (2 or 3 roller type). After bending the tube the sand or woods alloy Has to be removed. (The tube can be placed in Boiling Water to melt & remove the woods alloy from inside.) With most tube bending machines, the ends do not get bent, so start with a longer tube than required and cut the unbent ends later.

regards,

S D Lashkari

can you provide me the spec of woods alloy

Wood's Metal.

Tin 2 parts

Lead 4 parts

Bismuth 5 to 8 parts

This silvery, fine-grained alloy fuses

between 151 and 162 F

Brad

one of the best method to bend a pipe is to take some fine white sand(sharp sand or glass sand) dry the sand and filled the whole pipe with it and then use a welder torch(that burn with Oxygen and Acceteline) to heat the pipe while the pipe under bending should be fixed on some nails welded to the table heating for proper tilting to the angle of bend required.

A three roll tube bending roll will perform the task but the tube OD my not be perfect, especially on the ID. There may be some wrinkling.

The aluminium grade is importante. Chose a grade like 6061 t3 or lower. The time is also a factor, the 6061 t3 are more maleable in the first 72 hours, after this point is compare to a 6061t6 and is brokable.

Good luck

I agree with posts to use rolls. Multiple passes may reduce deformation but you will always see some deformation, even with a mandrel or shot/sand filler.

Material type, as motioned above, will help get your answer. Temper is a big issue in bending aluminum.

Not sure what your budget is but you can get it extruded at the mill into a round. $$$

If you have tube bending requirements call SF Tube. CNC tube bending operation out of Hayward CA. 510-785-9148 Rafael.

Dear Siraj,

What do you mean by any deformation ? any Tube bending process will deform the bending area. this means you will not have the same dimension in X aixs compared to Y axis. However it depends on the CLR, Alloy also.

More over, you have to join the tube ends by welding where you will certainly find the deformation.

We also make tubualr corona rings and it is common.

If you are looking for sourcing of the tubes I can help you too -

Regards

Srinivas