AddisonMckee's Tube Bending Capability Enables Production Of World's Largest Hydroformed Automotive Components
Share:
In a culmination of expertise from its USA, Canadian and UK operations, world-leading tube manipulation technology specialists, AddisonMckee, have developed a highly innovative complete workcell solution for one of North America's leading car makers.
The AddisonMckee workcell will be used in the production of the largest hydroformed aluminum and steel automotive components in the world - side rails for one of America's favorite sports cars. Each side rail measures 6" in diameter, is almost 16 feet in length and weighs almost 90lbs (when produced from steel).
Tube feed system
The workcell created by AddisonMckee is based around a tube feeding system that separates tubes to be bent from incoming bundles and presents individual, seam-oriented tubes ready for loading.
The tubes are then loaded into a 6" CNC tube bender by a 7-axis robot. The newly developed Siemens 840D-based bender control system provides the car manufacturer with full, open access to customize bend sequences and to optimize motions.
After bending, the finished parts are unloaded via a second 7-axis robot and moved to one of two tube fixtures where downstream automation feeds them through the hydroforming process.
