Tube End Forming Machine, Pipe End Forming Machine

What is tube end forming? What is the process of tube forming?

The tube end-forming process is usually used for a connection to other tubes, hoses, or other objects. Tube forming means the process of shaping a flat piece of metal into a closed tube. Compared to tube bending, where the finished tube already is enclosed, but still needs to be bent into the final shape. Both, tube forming and tube bending, are metal forming processes.

There are different types of tube end forming. Types such as expanding, reducers, ram forming, and rotary spinning to name a few. The expanding option expands a tube by the use of segmented fingers and a tapered mandrel inside the tube that will increase the diameter. The most requested types of end-forming include beading, expanding, flanging, flaring, grooving, knurling, reducing and thickening. These operations can be done on a variety of part specifications and materials, including copper, aluminum, brass, steel and stainless steel.

The reducing process actually reduces the size of the tube by using segmented tooling. Ram forming uses a ram and vice type action to make the plug expand and ring reduction. With rotary spinning, it will create open-end flares by using a rotating flare head that is moved by a hydraulic ram.

An item can be end-formed either before or after bending, depending on the part being created. If the forming work is done after bending, the tube is trimmed to the correct length to accommodate. End forming is normally integrated with other operations, such as bending and tube lasering, as a part of an overall tube fabrication project.

The Tube End Forming Machine, a versatile tool, excels in a variety of end forming applications across multiple industries including automotive exhaust systems, furniture manufacturing, and air conditioning such as tube end flanging, flaring, bead, expanding, reducing and shrinking etc. Featuring sizes up to 300 mm even more, they can be equipped with one to six even more operating stations, enabling efficient processing of tube ends. This makes them ideal for handling both straight and curved tubular components, enhancing their adaptability in diverse manufacturing settings.