3D simulator speeds tube

One of the most time-consuming tasks normally faced by users is structuring a program to prevent any collisions between the tube and the bending machine, or its surroundings such as the production floor. It is difficult to visualise the combined effect of tube feed and rotation, and the movement of machine tooling, such as clamping and pressure dies, and the bending head.

The problem becomes more acute as the length of tube, or the complexity of bends increases. As a result, optimising the program's bending sequence and incorporating any necessary correction feeds for collision avoidance is usually an iterative task demanding valuable machine time. It also invariably involves producing trial parts, creating unnecessary scrap material.

Unison has launched an advanced three-dimensional simulator to help metal fabricators accelerate the development of control programs for all-electric tube bending machines. Using artificial intelligence techniques, the simulator provides powerful program analysis and optimisation facilities, together with realistic real-time visualisation of the tube bending process.

Simulation software The simulation software is valuable in almost all tube bending applications, but can be particularly helpful for fabricators quoting on jobs and planning production, in reducing design-to-manufacturing times to help speed product delivery, and on any application involving tubes manufactured from expensive alloys. Customers with several Unison machines can also use the software to choose the most appropriate machine for bending a particular part.

Unison's new 3D simulator is based on true CAD (computer-aided design) models of the target machines, resulting in exceptionally detailed computer-generated imagery. The simulator is designed specifically to help users develop high quality production-standard tube bending programs without the need to test and optimise them on the target machine. Used in conjunction with Unison's Windowsbased Unibend control software, it enables fully validated bending programs to be created entirely off-line, and is suitable for any machine in the Breeze range of allelectric tube benders.

Unison's 3D simulator incorporates fully automated collision detection capabilities and offers a choice of real-time or batch operating modes to create error free bend instructions. In real-time mode, simulation can be paused at any time and can be started from any bend; changes made to bend instructions will cause the
simulator to re-evaluate the motion profile of the machine – ensuring that the simulator always mirrors the sequences used on the real machine. In batch mode, the simulator will study a directory tree and process all bend instruction files in that tree; parts that can be bent will be stored in a designated folder and parts for which the simulator could find no collision-free solution will be stored in a quarantine folder for further analysis by production or design teams.

During beta trials of the simulator, one customer reported that by using batch mode they had fully analysed and verified the bending programs for 300 parts in 4 hours – a task that previously took up to 5 working days due to the need for machine time, and operator involvement, to trial every part.  Without simulation, ascertaining whether it is even possible to bend a part on a particular machine can take several days. After creating the part model on a CAD system, the designer processes the data using Unison software to create a YBC file which defines each bend in three dimensions. The file is then transferred to the machine where it runs under control of Unibend software – the operator is responsible for checking if it creates the desired part. Any need for changes are fed back to the designer, and after modification the prograButy sportowe Nike