Spring Loaded Automated Bender (SLAB)
Automated Tube Bending
The SLAB was developed in response to quality issues which emerged from the manual bending of Nylon tubes by human operators. It uses a spring-powered mechanism and takes advantage of the reduced rigidity of Nylon during the annealing process to automate a time- and force-sensitive operation, thereby increasing overall productivity and part quality.
The device was designed in CATIA V5 and NX 8.0. Mock-ups were built at the on-site R&D Lab and tested in industrial-grade lab ovens. Production site visits helped narrow down causes of buckling as well as provide in-depth knowledge of the annealing process.
The insights gleaned from this experience would serve as a foundation for future tool iterations at MPC which use purely mechanical, as opposed to mechatronic, methods to automate the forming of Nylon tubes for automotive OEMs.