Tube Fabricating

About Tube Fabricating and Tubing Including: Tube Bending, Tube Cutting, Pipe Bending & Tube Swaging.

Tube fabricating services consist of both the initial creation of the metal tubing and the subsequent bending or shaping of the tubing itself. Tube fabricating can be done using both cold and hot working processes, which employ pipe bending and tube benders, and also alter the mechanical properties of the original material. Metal tubing is typically manufactured by roll-forming a strip of sheet metal, although it can also be extruded or drawn. Once manufactured, metal tubing can be formed into a finished part by a variety of processes, including hydro-forming, welding and bending. Some materials used in tube fabricating include aluminum, brass, copper and nickel alloys.

The fundamental specifications of a tube are outside diameter, wall thickness and material used. The most common material used in tube fabricating is stainless steel. Plastic is another medium used in the tube fabricating, but because of the way it is formed and the way it is used in industries, it is very different from metal tubing and piping. A common way of referring to metal tubing is piping. All pipes are essentially tubes and are mostly distinguished by the manner of their specifications in which standardized values are used, instead of actual measurements, to identify the outside diameters and wall thicknesses.

A tube fabricator provides a wide range of services. Many are capable of tube bending, tube welding, hydro-forming, tube spinning, tube flaring, tube expanding, tube swaging, tube deburring, precision tube cutting, tube cleaning, tube polishing and tube assembling. Custom tubing shapes are also available, such as oval and rectangular tubing. Components, which require the tubing to be attached to another piece of metal, can also be shaped and formed at most shops as well. The tube forming itself is done often by shops that specialize in only that, not the subsequent tube bending or custom welding.

Tube bending is a widely available specialized service. It is either done by automated machines or manually. One such machine uses mandrels, which bend the tubing as it is being formed. Another takes pre-made tubing and bends the tubing through a series of triangulated rollers in order to achieve the right bend radius. The method often varies according to the industry. The agricultural, construction, aerospace, automotive, electrical and medical industries rely on various lengths and strengths of tubing in everyday operations and manufacturing of their products. Therefore, tube fabricators play a crucial role in many different industries.

Tube Fabricating and Tubing Image Provided by Stam, Inc.	Tube Fabricating and Tubing Image Provided by Woolf Aircraft Products, Inc.

Tube Fabricating and Tube Fabricators Image Provided by Harco Metal Products, Inc. TM

Types of Tube Fabricating Including: Tubing, Tube Benders, Tube Cutting, Pipe Cutters, Pipe Bending and Tube Fabricators.

• CNC tube bending bends tubes and pipes using computer-controlled machines that ensure the quality and efficiency of a product. Today’s modern CNC technology has made it possible to produce high volume, close tolerance, tubular metal parts quickly and economically.
  
• Hydro-forming is a metal fabrication method of forming tubular metal parts within a die cavity. This high-pressure method forces fluids inside the die so that the part expands into its final shape.
  
• Pipe bending is a process that uses computerized machines to bend pipes.
  
• Roll forming metal (http://www.rollformedparts.com) is the tube fabrication process that is most common, although it is not used for thicker metal tubing. It involves rolling a strip of sheet metal and curing it.
  
• Rotary draw bending employs mandrels and various dies to manage and control metal flow during the bending process. In this process, a precision mandrel is positioned inside the tube, while a pressure die, wiper die, bend die and clamp dies surround the outside of the tube.
  
• Tube bending uses computerized machines to bend tubes.
  
• Tube cutting is a process that uses computerized machines to cut pipes and tubes.
  
• Tube swaging uses high pressure to shape tubes.

Common Terms Related to Tube Fabricating, Tubing, Tube Benders, Tube Cutting, Pipe Cutters, Pipe Bending and Tube Fabricators.

Alloy Steel - Steel that is alloyed with moderate amounts of chromium and other elements, such as molybdenum. Alloy steel is distinguished from stainless steel by good hardening characteristics and from tool steel by possessing better "toughness" after hardening.

Annealing - The heating and cooling of steel to remove stresses, alter physical, mechanical and metallurgical properties, increase corrosion resistance and thermally treat steel prior to age hardening.

Arc - The curved section of bent tubing.

As-Welded - Tubing that is not given heat treatment after the initial welding.

Austenitic - A family of chromium nickel stainless steels that have good corrosion resistance and good formability, but can only be hardened by cold working.

Bend Die - Less commonly known as the "bend form" or the "radius die," it is the primary tool on a rotary-draw tube-bending machine. The bend die is the form against which the tube is clamped and then drawn around to produce a bend.

Bright Annealing - The process of annealing in a controlled atmosphere so that dark, adherent oxides do not form on the metal.

Burst Pressure - The amount of pressure that will make tubing fail or burst by exceeding the tensile strength of the material from which the tubing is made.

Camber - A measure of warp in tubing material or the deviation from straightness.

Cold Drawing - The normal method of rotary-draw tube-bending, which is done without heating the tubing material.

Ductility - A measure of a tube's ability to deform without fracturing.

Elongation - The amount of permanent extension of the material before it fractures.

Full-Finished - A term that refers to the state of the tube after the weld has been processed to produce uniform strength and dimensions and the tube has been annealed for corrosion resistance.

Manipulation Tests - Tests used to evaluate the quality of finished products, such as crush, flare, bend, flange, flatten, reverse flatten, reverse bend and expanding.

Ovality - The deformation of round tubing into an elliptical shape or a symmetrical flattening of a round tube. Ovality is the measure of the difference between the maximum and minimum outside diameters of a round tube.

Passivation - A protective layer made of oxides, which is on the outside of tubing, that resists corrosion.

Pickling - The chemical removal of oxides on the surface of metals.

Pressure Tubing - Tubing specified for the containment of liquids and gasses, as opposed to structural or mechanical purposes.

Tangent - The unbent section of a bent tube.