Whether you are running a Rotary Bender, Roll Bender, Plate Bender, Press Brake or "fill in the blank"; you will discover, or already know that metal bending is truly an art.. But what is bending to the definitive point? Well bending in the metal fabrication world is to conduct a process that achieves a V-shape, U-Shape, channel shape, coil, or even a multi-radii shape with a piece of metal. Now one misconception that often arises when customers call us here at Quantum Machinery, is that a Roll Bender should be able to do anything a Rotary Bender can do, and vise versa, just to a lesser degree; so we would like to address that. In reality a Roll Bender and a Rotary Bender are like a pool and a spa, they are both fantastic at what they do, in fact what they do is almost similar, but they will perform best for what they were designed to do.

Roll Benders, sometimes referred to as Angle Rolls, specialize in putting "sweeps" or as a scholar would say, radii, on a single piece of material. Roll benders comprise of three rolls which are positioned into a pyramid-like form, the machine is used either in the vertical position, or for larger section bending, laid on it's back in the horizontal position. After the "top roll" is positioned with your material placed and aligned within the rolls, the rolls move which produce a distinct radii on your piece. Now not all Roll Benders have stationary bottom rolls with a moveable top roll; there are also roll benders that have a stationary top roll, while the bottom rolls are moveable, allowing you to pre-bend your part. Roll bending is used in countless industries, and plays a vital role in the success for many companies all over the world. Now Roll Benders, are not just for putting a nice arc in your material on a single point, or numerous points (Ex.1B); plenty of companies use their Roll Benders to produce coils, used in the Heat Exchanger industries, Architectural industries, and the list keeps coiling upwards, (no pun intended). Now here is where the misconceptions start and how the two beasts differ. What a Roll Bender cannot do is put a perfect 90 degree angle into a piece of material. As shown in Ex.1A:

You may now be thinking, "Well then, what can I use to bend tight shapes such as a 45 degree, 90 degree or beyond." Luckily this is where the Rotary Bender has a play in the game. If you are looking for precision, the Rotary Draw Benders dominates the profile bending field. With a Rotary Bender, you can hit those tight radii that are desired for your applications; and in some cases, you can get down to a CLR that is literally just 0.7 times the outer diameter of the tube you would need to be bending (or as a processor of tubes would call it, less than 1xD). Another game changer that the Rotary Mandrel Bender brings to the table is the ability to have the most control, (more than any other metal forming process) with ovality and wall thinning of your material. Rotary Draw Mandrel Bending braces the material's flow by bending the material that is being formed using a mandrel that goes into the inner diameter of the tube, while precision tooling is making contact on the outside. A setup for a Rotary Bender uses a few different possible aspects: A pressure die that holds onto the straight section of a piece (which is sometimes called the Tangent). A Clamp Die is used if rotation of the piece that you are bending is required. A Mandrel is used to support the interior of a profile to keep the application from collapsing. And lastly, a Wiper Die which makes contact with the workpiece just before the tangent point of the I.R. (Inside Radius), wiping against the material to help with the prevention of wrinkles on the formed part's inside radius.

So now you know the main differences between a Roll Bender and a Rotary Bender, enough to choose wisely as to which type of machine YOU need would be!

Lastly is tooling for either of these styles of machines. Here at Quantum Machinery Group, we have a full in-house Quantum Machine Shop to provide you, our customers, with a complete turn key package. Meaning we don't stop at just selling you a machine, we will tread the waters with you if need be on your projects for your machinery that you purchase from us. We go through all of the stages with you: from the selling stage, to the application trials stage, the installation and training stage, and the after-sales support. Our goal at Quantum is to be your essential supplier of Metal Fabrication Machinery, Tooling, and HSS Cold Saw Blades.

Have a great week, until next time!

Faithfully,

- Quantum Machinery Group