Pressure Dies

  1. STATIC OR TRAVELING
  2. ELLIPTICAL TUBE GROOVES FOR BENDING WITHOUT MANDRELS
  3. ROUND, SQUARE, RECTANGLE & EXTRUDED SHAPES
  4. REACH ADJUSTED FOR QUICK CHANGE OR MULTIRADIUS TOOLS

Static or Traveling

Pressure Die

Static PRESSURE DIES do not move.  The tube simply drags through during the bend.  Traveling PRESSURE DIES also called follower PRESSURE DIES, can reduce galling and marking of the tube by alleviating some drag during bending.  By traveling at bend speed it can also reduce wall thinning on the out side of the tube.  Some benders are equipped with boost or PRESSURE DIE ASISST.  By adding pressure at or faster than bend speed, material can actually be added to the outside of the tube.

Elliptical Tube Grooves for Bending Without Mandrels

Elliptical bending is not for every situation.  It’s very specific to tube O.D., wall thickness, C.L.R., material and product specs.  Bending with an elliptical shaped tube groove can eliminate the need for a mandrel, but comes with some cost.  Because it’s actually reshaping and resizing the shape of the tube, a lot of the machines ability is used up in working the tube.  Therefore, a machines elliptical capacity is only 5/8 of its round capacity.  To see if BENDING WITHOUT A MANDREL is applicable, you’ll need to know some formulas.  First one is bend DIFFICULTY FACTOR (DF).   

TUBE O.D. / WALL = WALL FACTOR
C.L.R. / TUBE O.D. = D OF BEND
WALL FACTOR / D OF BEND = DIFFICULTY FACTOR

Knowing the DIFFICULTY FACTOR, you can evaluate the elliptical feasibility per your material type and or configurator data.

For more extensive information see our NONMANDREL BENDING article.  Because these factors as well as the type of tube material affect the process.  T.B.C. can customize shape geometry per your application, producing predicable results.

Round, Square, Rectangle & Extruded Shapes

Square and rectangle tubing is usually bent using leaf tooling.  Without leaf tooling, the vertically expanded tube will lock into the bend die.  Once the leaf (or plate) is removed, the tube is free to be extracted.  Single leaf tooling has one plate.  For highly cosmetic parts, double leaf tooling provides very little marking.  

Reach Adjusted for Quick Change or Multiradius Tools

TiCN Coated Pressure Die

To save time and effort, reach adjusted PRESSURE DIES eliminate excessive movements to the bolsters during set up. Significantly reducing set up times.