The technology to create this type of process already exists and is called All-In-One. It was developed by BLM GROUP and consists of the integration of laser cutting and tube bending systems.
With All-In-One, the deformation and elongation of tubes during bending is already taken into account by the software and compensated for in the laser cutting process, producing the part right from the start without waste of time and material for testing and correction.
There are three BLM GROUP systems, all perfectly interconnected with All-In-One technology today at MarkSTAHL:
The process is extremely lean. The LT8.20 and LT5 laser cut the parts, making the necessary corrections to take account of the subsequent bending process. Then, via the loader, the tubes are automatically transferred to the tube bender.
The E-TURN 52 recognizes the position of the holes and orients the tube accordingly. Then, it carried out the subsequent bending operations automatically, compensating for the springback of the material.
All this means that the part is right from the start with no more rejects, or trial and error.