Tube Bender Helps BAE Systems Build Sub
A Unison tube bending machine is helping BAE Systems to fabricate complex part shapes required to build the UK’s Astute Class nuclear-powered submarines. The all-electric tube bender features both right- and left-handed bending capability. This allows long and complicated tubular part shapes to be produced very rapidly and in a single stage. For BAE Systems this is a critical advantage, as the boat-building process must run to plan, and many parts are produced to demand to satisfy the production schedule.
In some cases, such as when fabricating tubular shapes of several metres in length, the machine also allows BAE Systems to make parts from a single length of tubing, avoiding any need to join tube sections. In addition to production speed advantages, this capability also eliminates time-consuming and expensive X-ray and crack-detection testing stages that would otherwise be required to verify the integrity of welded joints for this high-reliability equipment.
In order to fit in all of the submarine’s equipment, and maximise the free space available, small-bore piping and tubing services such as hydraulic lines are often shaped to fit into the free spaces adjacent to panels and bulkheads. Consequently, tubular parts are often fabricated in batch sizes of just one. The Unison tube bender is making it quicker to produce components, as programs are simply loaded from the design database, and bends are then made precisely by servomotor movement axes with closed-loop control mechanisms.
No manual intervention or adjustments of any kind are required. If the tooling is already on the machine, the setup operation is achieved in around 15 minutes. This is at least twice as fast as the setup process for the company’s hydraulic bending machines. Power consumption reduction is another advantage of the Unison bender. As there are no hydraulic pumps continuously running, significant electrical current is only drawn when the machine is making a bend, so energy consumption is reduced substantially.
Another useful aspect of the machine is its incorporation of software-based facilities that can be used for fault diagnosis. These include a camera that can be used to capture images or video of any operational problems.
In combination with a software ‘black box’ which automatically stores the last 500 instructions entered by the operator, along with details of machinery positions from the servo motor sensors, Unison have detailed information to provide remote maintenance advice. To save space, the new tube bender incorporates on-machine guard panels. This feature will also simplify moving the machine if required, for any reorganisation of the shipyard for subsequent construction projects.
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