Abstract
This paper reports a new flexible bending machine for tubes and profiles. The proposed machine uses a new method. When tubes are fed into the fixed and mobile dies, they are bent by shifting the relative position of the mobile die. The bending radius is controlled by the relative distance and orientation between the mobile die and the tube. The bending angle is controlled by the length of fed tube. The positions and orientations of the mobile die are controlled by a 6-DOF parallel kinematics mechanism (PKM). Making use of the PKM serves not only to achieve a complete motion along six axes and to manufacture at high productivity, but also to obtain a high dynamic motion of the bending machine. Experimental results show that the bending machine can be applied to square pipes with a spiral shape that are difficult to bend using a conventional bending machine.
