Boosted drive for pressure die of a tube bender

摘要

A tube bender has multiple rotatable bend dies of differing radii and a pressure die engaging the outer surface of the trailing portion of the tube tangential to the bend. A drive for the pressure die is provided to move the pressure die parallel to the tangential tube portion during bending. The drive includes sensors for determining both the drive speed of the pressure die and the rotation rate of the bend die, a computer which converts the detected rotation rate into a center line speed for the tube, and a servomechanism which controls the drive structure so as to drive the pressure die at a speed which has a selected ratio to the tube center line speed.