Freeform Tube Bender

For our capstone project, my team and I set out to build a custom CNC Freeform Tube Bender. A freeform tube bender differs from a traditional CNC tube bender in the means by which it bends the tube. Instead of gripping two points on the tube and forcing it around a bending die, a freeform tube bender extrudes the tube into an inclined plane to achieve a bend. This enables continuously changing bend radii, such as complex splines in 3D like a helix or a sinusoid. Our machine costs an order of magnitude less than the competition, and can bend infinite length tube given our novel gripping mechanism. Currently the machine can bend 1/2" steel tube (0.065" wall) in bend radii as tight as 9". Planned upgrades intend to decrease this minimum bend radius and increase the bendable tube diameter.

 

We're continuing this project beyond our capstone semester, but a snapshot of our current fully functional prototype can be seen in the videos and presentation below.