Unison Ltd, a Scarborough-based company known for its innovations in all-electric tube manipulation, has launched a new flat bar forming machine that promises to revolutionize the production of complex metal components. The new machine, called the Unison FLEX Flat Bar Former, is set to change the way stairlift railings, street furniture, architectural fixtures, and other applications using flat bar materials are manufactured.
The Unison FLEX is designed for efficient and seamless production of flat bar profiles, including toothed, pocketed, and tubular shapes. It can handle intricate and complex designs, producing freeform and sculptured shapes in minutes. When paired with Unison’s advanced Opt2Sim Suite of tube simulation software, the process of designing for production becomes simple and straightforward.
Alan Pickering, joint managing director at Unison Ltd, explained that flat bar shapes used in industries such as stairlifts and architecture are typically made through manual fabrication. This process is time-consuming and labor-intensive, especially for all but the simplest of straight rail installations. However, Unison’s new FLEX machine eliminates these challenges by offering a fully electric solution that can transform CAD models of 3D shapes into accurate, continuous 3D roll-formed products.
The software developed by Unison allows for precise calibration of flat bar shapes, taking into account bends and twists. This ensures that parts are produced correctly on the first attempt, within the tolerances typical for metal. Unison’s Opt2Sim software suite also features a 3D file import system, which lets users easily drag and drop STEP files for instant access to bending data. Alternatively, parts can be created by entering XYZ coordinates or YBC data and visualized in 3D.
For more accurate creation of calibration files, Unison also offers the Opt2Sim Scan, a portable tube and bar geometry scanning solution. This advanced system uses a Creaform3D hand-held scanner to provide highly accurate, portable 3D scans of components that need to be replicated or measured. The scanner’s high density of scan points, combined with its constant reference geometry, ensures precise results with minimal need for specialized operators. The scanned data can be compared with master file data, and corrections can be sent directly to the bending machine.
Pickering further emphasized, “We’ve made it incredibly simple to create complex flat bar shapes, even considering the real-world characteristics of the material. Our new Unison FLEX Flat Bar Former delivers new levels of precision, control, and time efficiency in working with flat bar materials. It’s already generating significant interest, especially among stairlift manufacturers.”
Unison Ltd is a leading UK manufacturer of tube and pipe bending machines. The company is known for its groundbreaking innovations, including the world’s first all-electric tube bender in 1994 and the first all-electric multi-stack tube bender. Unison’s machines are now available in over 20 countries, and its tube-bending software is regarded as the most user-friendly control system in the industry. Because the software is developed and supported by Unison itself, the company maintains full control over its evolution, eliminating the need for third-party support.
