| Even as a child, you were probably bending metal. | | | | when it suits their specifications. |
| You might have been bending metal paper clips, or | | | | Mandrel to bend metal |
| even your parents' cutlery. Or you might have | | | | Mandrel bending is also fairly well known. In this |
| preferred making pipe-cleaner clowns. Or you could | | | | process, a metal shaft, or mandrel, is fitted inside the |
| have just stuck to bending the toothpaste tube | | | | steel tube or pipe. As the mandrel moves, it bends |
| (They were metal back then, weren't they?). One | | | | the metal around the appropriate sized die to form |
| thing is for certain, the metal you were bending as a | | | | the radius. |
| child was not steel beams or tubes, and it never had | | | | Mandrel works best when the steel tube or pipe has |
| to be strong enough to hold up a stadium roof or a | | | | a heavy wall and/or requires a tight radius because it |
| roller coaster. | | | | prevents the material from rippling. Mandrel can only |
| As adults, we rely on curved metal beams, pipe, | | | | bend steel tubing up to 180 degrees, but it produces |
| tubes, and angles in everything from a simple park | | | | a bend that is uniform all the way up and down the |
| bench to spiral staircases to some parts of modern | | | | pipe or tube. Obviously, this process is of little use for |
| skyscrapers. Visit any airport or museum built in the | | | | bending metal beams or sheets, however, it is used |
| past couple decades and count the number of | | | | in bending exhaust pipes, molten glass and in very |
| curved metal structures you find. | | | | tiny cases, jewelry. |
| Have you ever wondered how they do it? I mean, | | | | Press to bend metal |
| how can you bend a steel beam and still keep the | | | | The Press method is the third way to bend metal. |
| strength to support an airport roof? Well, there are | | | | The steel tube, pipe, channel, bar or steel beam is |
| four ways. | | | | fed through the press, which applies pressure every |
| Rolling to bend metal | | | | 6 or 7 inches until the material is bent to |
| Rolling is the best known way to bend metal, | | | | specifications |
| perhaps because it is the least costly. Rolling uses an | | | | Press is used to bend bigger, heavier beams, pipes, |
| appropriate size die that adjusts to the steel tube, | | | | channels, bars or tubes (24 inches or thicker) that do |
| angle, pipe, channel, bar or steel beam and revolves | | | | not require a very tight radius. |
| at the same peripheral speed, turning in opposite | | | | This is a less common process than rolling or mandrel. |
| directions. As the metal passes through the roll, the | | | | However, it is capable of producing large, load-bearing |
| machine applies pressure to bend the tubing or the | | | | steel support beams used for schools, roofing, |
| beam to the desired radius. | | | | skyscrapers, gymnasiums, malls and bridges. |
| Rolling is effective when the material - metal, plastic, | | | | Table forming to bend metal |
| glass, whatever - must be bent a great deal. For | | | | Table forming is the fourth process. The steel tube, |
| instance, it can produce bends up to 360 degrees. | | | | pipe, or beam is laid out straight and the ends are |
| This method is ideal for producing steel coils, spiral | | | | pulled around the appropriate sized die to form the |
| staircases and the like. | | | | radius. |
| There are different kinds of rolling processes. Hot | | | | Table forming is used primarily to bend smaller, |
| rolling (above the recrystallization temperature) | | | | heavier steel tubes, pipes, channels, bars or steel |
| mostly produces sheet metal. Most non-ferrous metal | | | | beams that require a tight radius. |
| structures are rolled cold, but steel is usually rolled | | | | But if all that metal bending is too much for you, pick |
| hot. | | | | up those pipe cleaners and wow your kids with the |
| Because rolling requires less set-up work and uses | | | | colorful pipe-cleaner clowns you can form by bending |
| pre-made dies, the cost is less than other ways to | | | | metal at home. |
| bend and form steel, so companies often choose this | | | | |