Motorizing the Manual 3 Roller Pipe Bending Machine

Without some means to stop the device under power when a worker is accidentally drawn into it you will have created a death trap.limit switches light curtains, guards around belt sheaves and pulleys and adequate guarding around pinch points are essential.

"in the first place do no harm" milo

I don't think you are going to get enough reduction with belts. I made such a unit, and it had a lot of reduction, so the pipe didn't move too quickly. I think I used a foot switch so I could keep both hands on the pipe being fed into the machine. If anything went wrong, my foot came off the switch.

I was making copper coils, it was fun. I had the rollers offset so they would roll a continuous coil, like a spring.

Look into worm drives, they are compact, and all the workings are enclosed.

A picture or sketch would help.

Excellent! The picture is quite clear.

Let me suggest another approach: replace the drive screw with a hydraulic cylinder, powered by either a manual or electric hydraulic pump. Benders of this type may be described as "one-shot benders" or "segment benders." A Web search on these terms may give you a few illustrations.

If the budget cannot support a hydraulic unit, you could replace the "T" handle on the screw with a fairly large belt pulley, driven by a motor with a smaller pulley.

Tornado, my google of the site he listed showed a roller type pipe bender. The T handle adjusts the center roller, controls the radius of the bend. The L handle turns the movable wheel, feeding the pipe through the machine. It would be the L handle that would be motorized, to power feed the pipe. For the one I motorized, I mounted a motor with built in gear reduction to the L handle shaft.

One shot or segment benders are the conduit benders, just a piece of pipe with a segment of curve on the end.

Good catch, and thanks. I didn't look closely enough.

thank for your valuable suggestions...but am also designing it.. so while designing i've got a load of 60KN for 10mm deflection and the rollers are 300mm apart... i've considered that as simply supported beam with load acting at centre which is roller 3.. so please can you make any corrections in my design... so that i can reduce the load... because 60KN means around 6tons..so how could a man able put that load... please give your valuable suggestions... if possible i'll send the link of the design datas which i've made ...ill be waiting ....reply soon

If the six tons of load is the downward force on the center wheel, don't worry about it, that's just force the machine is working with. If the six tons of force is the load that it takes to push the pipe through the machine, don't worry about it, turning the roller handle reduces that force using mechanical advantage.

Use a torque wrench to measure the torque required to rotate the L handle (not the T handle) on the center wheel, that is what you should be motorizing. I'm sure you will find it in the range of something you can find. Many times I will use a power drill to drive hand tools. A large power drill has gear reduction, reverse, a chuck to grab the shaft, and will give you a good idea of what to look for in a permanent solution.