Boeing chooses all-electric tube-bending machine for its helicopter manufacturing facility

Unison has shipped an all-electric tube-bending machine to Boeing Integrated Defense Systems’ rotorcraft manufacturing facility in Philadelphia.

The new Breeze 20 machine is capable of making precision bends on high-performance alloy and aluminium tubes with diameters of up to 25 mm, and will be used to fabricate hydraulic and fuel line components required during the manufacture and service of Chinook and V-22 Osprey helicopters. The machine features a ‘long nose’, which allows tubular shapes with complex bends, and very short distances between bends, to be fabricated in a single automatic operation.

This will be the first all-electric tube-bending machine to be installed at this Boeing facility. Instead of hydraulic force, Unison’s Breeze 20 uses servomotors to control the tube-bending process.

All-electric actuation provides significant advantages related to manufacturing precision, repeatability and energy consumption. Each of the tools employed during bending is under software control, allowing users to create smooth bends with optimal flow performance and strength. Once the machine is set up, operating parameters can also be stored, allowing machines to be reconfigured for another part or batch in a few minutes, without creating any scrap, as the actuation elements of the machine only need energy when a bend is being made, therefore reducing total power consumption.