Unison Tube Bending Blog: Measurement Devices – Are they really worth the cost ?

For one-off parts, the onboard Laser Springback and Correction ( as discussed here ) is probably as best as you are going to get, but if you require production and reporting, you are going to need something more sophisticated.

There are plenty of devices out there that can measure, from likes of Faro, Romer and Aicon, but because tube is a bit niche the software is not really written with a clear understanding of tube bending machinery, hence the existence of software packages such as VTube Laser.

The best integrated systems tend to come from the manufacturers of bending machines, as they make sure they communicate seamlessly, but over time, these players have disappeared, eg. Addison’s Addata, and Eaton Leonard’s Vector.

Back to the main point - are they worth it?

With the above systems you are probably into $100-300K, a sizeable amount of money for something that doesn’t really add value, only saves time.

But if you don’t want to be chasing your tail trying to correct and fit a part into a complex jig, its going to be essential, especially if your material costs are high.

The typical measurement process is in Unibend:

1. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Use a template file with the known Fixed & Proportional Springback and Radial Growth Factors as discussed here
2. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Overlay you XYZ or YBC / LRA data
3. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Produce a part
4. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Measure
5. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?If not within tolerance send corrections and repeat at (3)

When considering a measuring solution its important to consider an “End-to-End” Solution – all talking the same language, so you can avoid any file transfer handshakes or pauses in production, hence we developed Opt2Sim Scan.

Opt2Sim STEP File Import -> Opt2Sim Simulation -> Unibend Part Production -> Opt2Sim Scan Measurement & Correction Data

Play Video

The other challenge we found was that the operator of a traditional measuring arm required the user to be consistent and proficient in their operation of a light- weight arm made up of what is in essence a series of encoders linked together or a Camera system that really is designed as a photo geometry comparator.

These points can be easily demonstrated when operator A measures a part compared to operator B, or the part is positioned in a different corner of the table, so the task of measuring was left to the? Inspection Department? which can then become a bottle neck.

Using Opt2Sim Scan we wanted to make our software Hardware Agnostic so that people could transition to the End-to-End solution over time, but offer hardware that was also Operator Agnostic and cheaper!

When you add in the capability of putting Opt2Sim Scan on a Robot or Cobot – you’ve got yourself a fully capable self monitoring automated cell!

Contact us for an Opt2Sim demo now – we’ll even scan your parts – [email protected]