UK bending machine manufacturer Inductaflex, has mastered a brand new technique that the company says completely solves the difficulties and high costs of curving aluminium window frame sections to very tight radii.
An Inductaflex AL-1 aluminium bending machine recently successfully curved a 45mm wide x 65mm high extruded glazing section to a 165mm outside radius and 120mm inside radius.
Inductaflex Managing Director Craig Barnshaw described it as a significant innovation for the window industry: “Our customer had actually been turned away from two UK companies who considered bending the section to such a tight radius to be impossible.
“This was perhaps an understandable response as, on the face of it, it does look to be a curving task beyond normal limits. Nonetheless, we still carried out a feasibility study and, once we began analysing the section, we realised that it could in fact be done and, of equal importance, very cost effectively too.
“The key to success was very careful design of the specialist machine tooling for AL-1 that we designed and manufactured specifically for this task. The end result is an affordable and reliable solution for more extreme bending of profiles that has the capability of introducing new design possibilities for aluminium glazing system manufacturers.”
The Inductaflex AL-1 is one of the company’s current range of five flexible CNC bending machines for aluminium extrusions, light steel, polished tubes and scratch-free stainless steel bending. Meeting CE, UL and CSA standards, the AL-1 has a very short production time of between 60 and 90 days with machines sometimes available ex-stock.
More details can be found by visiting the Inductaflex website and downloading the company’s Flexible CNC Bending Machines brochure at http://www.inductaflex.com/aluminium-bending-machine.html