New Flat Bar Former Makes Complex, Flat Metal Parts Simple to Produce
Unison's newly launched FLEX Flat Bar Former offers the seamless production of flat bar, toothed and pocketed flat bar profiles as well as tubular shapes. It can precision-form the most complex of flat bar designs, including freeform and sculptured shapes in minutes. Additionally, when teamed with Unison's advanced Opt2Sim Suite of tube simulation software, design for manufacturing production strategies become straightforward and simple.
"Typically, the flat bar shapes that are used in stairlifts, architecture and other applications are manually fabricated -- a process that is particularly labor intensive for all but the simplest of straight rail installations," comments Unison Ltd's joint managing director, Alan Pickering. "Our new FLEX model, however, changes all that. In effect, we have created an all-electric machine and software package that can take a CAD model of a continuously changing 3D shape with a reference surface, then decode it so the shape can be faithfully recreated by continuous 3D roll-forming."
VIDEO: Flat Bar Former in Action
Unison's purpose-developed software allows flat bar shapes to be calibrated for bend and twist, enabling the production of right-first-time parts within the typical constraints of metal tolerance and behavior. The 3D file import system, contained in Unison's Opt2Sim tube simulation software suite, enables users to drag and drop STEP files into the software application and access bending data instantly. Alternatively, parts can be drawn by entering XYZ coordinates or YBC data then viewed in 3D.
Opt2Sim Scan for Precise, Portable 3D Measuring
For the precise creation of the calibration files necessary for accurately reproducing -- and verifying -- the various bends and twists of even the most complex of flat bar components, Unison's advanced Opt2Sim Scan portable tube and bar geometry scanning solution can also be specified with the new FLEX Flat Bar Former.
Possibly the most advanced hand-held tube measurement system on the market, Opt2Sim Scan incorporates a Creaform3D handheld scanner for precise, portable 3D scanning of the component the user wishes to replicate or measure. With considerable scan points, the system's constant reference geometry ensures accurate results without need of a skilled operator. Scanned dimensions are easily compared to master file data, with corrections sent directly to the bar bending machine.
The Complex, Made Simple
"We really have done everything possible to make creating complex flat bar metal shapes incredibly straightforward," adds Alan Pickering, "even to the degree of allowing for real-world material dimensions and calibrating around such characteristics. Our new Unison FLEX Flat Bar Former really is bringing new levels of control, precision and time saving to the manipulation of flat bar materials and is already generating considerable interest and orders from stairlift manufacturers in particular."
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