transfluid developed a tube processing system that involves robot handling of material and that can bend tubes in lengths of up to 4500 mm – 47 bends in 140 seconds ca. Another specification that the team had to meet was that tubes were already shaped or fitted with flanges.
The process
The process involves first inserting a bundle of tubes into a feeder; after that they are individually orientated by symmetrical rotation according to the positioning of the flanges. Each tube is then picked up by one of the two robots and transferred to a moveable spanning device with an appropriate high retaining system designed for longer tubing. The spanning device allows the robots to process the tubes on one or even two sides in parallel. Both robots have 7 axes with drive systems and can bend right/left. Another advantage: isometric data can be uploaded directly online from a CAD system.
