How to bend a profile pipe: types of profile benders and an overview of 3 "manual" methods

Process complexity

All metallic material may be partially or wholly bent. The process of twisting is carried out in two ways:

• mechanical impact;
• metal heating.

A round metal product has approximately even indicators. However, the profile pipe has an angle of 90°.Such an angle of the pipe interferes with a calm bend, as a result, various folds appear, which can subsequently burst or break.

In order not to spoil the metal, you need to clearly know how to bend a profile pipe at home. Many summer residents, not knowing the sensitivity of bending, spend a lot of material, which is consequently thrown away.

Sector welding

Often people don't know how to bend stainless steel pipe as stainless material has a stronger alloy than regular steel. Of course, thanks to professional equipment, this is easy to do. But what if there is nothing at hand that can provide sufficient mechanical pressure? It was for this purpose that sector welding was invented.

Its principle is that the profile product is filed on one side at equal distances, after which the material is bent in the required direction and the slots are welded

In this case, it is important to know that the professional pipe is most often thin-walled and when the slots are nearby, it is very easy to burn through

People with little experience with the tool often miss the cuts, making them either excessively frequent or rare. To make sure the markup is correct, you can take another elastic square material and use it as a template.

If you have a gas burner on hand, then the profile material can be bent by heating. Once the metal is hot, it warps more easily, which helps to avoid creases on the inside of the wall. If the bending radius is small, then you can get by with a regular clamp. But if more precise bending is required, a guide wall is required.

With the help of sand

To make a product from a bent profile pipe, you can use sand. The end of the material is tightly closed with a special plastic or copper sleeve. After that, fine sand is poured into the pipe

It is important that the product is completely clogged with sand. Since the empty space inside the pipe is now tightly packed, the material will be much easier to mechanically bend.

The main thing is to initially create a standard by which you can bend and guide the product.

bend in the tree

This method is relatively often used if the pipe diameter does not exceed 15 mm. For bending to be successful, the end of the material must be tightly fixed. But what to do if you can’t hold the material with your hands, and there are simply no other attachment points anywhere? And for this, jacks of all trades came up with a method of fastening. Surely all summer cottages can have trees. It is the tree that can serve not only as a strong fastener, but also as a diameter for bending the profile pipe.

View overview

Those who are engaged in the installation of various metal structures need to use a profile bender. Now it has become fashionable to install beautiful greenhouses made of metal profiles on your site. They are reliable. Therefore, for greenhouses, canopies (arched), namely for their manufacture, a manual profile bender is quite suitable. It is small, it can be installed in any room intended for various construction works.

For bending profiles with tension, you can use a machine that works on the principle of the PGR-6 machine. This product has a stretching mechanism designed to bend aluminum alloys along contours that are not closed. In profile bending, the number of rolls plays a major role. The simplest design consists of 2 rolls.Such models are used for very light work.

The number of rolls and versatility determines which type a particular machine may belong to. Some rolling products can rotate the rolls only in one direction, while others can rotate in both directions at once. Therefore, in the first case, the machines are called non-reversible, and in the second - reversible.

Consider, for example, a three-roll roll forming machine with hydraulic movement of the top roll. In it, the profile is fixed between the rolls. All of them have hydraulic engines and nozzles (suitable for any section). The required radius is provided here by a hydraulic drive. Therefore, these products are in good demand where a machine is needed for the production of simple products.

With the help of profile benders of different directions, it is possible to perform various configurations from metal that differs in radius. They are able to produce parts of various curvatures with both asymmetrical and symmetrical contours. In more detail, profile benders have the following types.

• Pneumatic profile bending machines work with the help of pneumatics.
• There are hydraulic profile bending machines.
• There are also manual, mechanical and electromechanical profile benders.

By way of placement

Profile benders are placed on different flat surfaces. Too large specimens are installed on the floor in a spacious room. Due to their enormous weight, they can only be used in workshops. Such models have an electric drive and work from the network. Other copies are necessarily fixed with the help of special devices to prevent their involuntary movement.This category of machines is intended for work both on an industrial scale and for individual use. Industrial machines are used for bending where large-scale work takes place. So, there are mobile machines, and there are stationary ones. Each of them has either manual or automatic material feed.

In most cases, manual profile bending machines are used by specialists. Some make them by hand. This option is quite affordable. But there are also downsides. For example, it is inconvenient to perform several bends at once on one profile. It is also difficult to work with such products due to the heavy load on the person. In addition, the bending time increases, it is impossible to control the bending radius.

Drive type

Profile benders are classified in this way.

An electric profile bender, if compared with a manual one, can operate at a fairly high speed. It also excels in precision work. With the help of such a device, very durable metal products can be bent. Can process all kinds of profiles, even I-beams and round products.

Oval protection

The main methods of cold bending of a galvanized pipe provide for measures that allow you to bend the workpiece, preserving the shape of its cross section as much as possible. This is usually done in one of two ways:

• Use of measures to preserve the shape of the section from the inside (use of an internal limiter).
• Using an external stop to prevent expansion of the side walls.

Rigid materials as a filler retain their shape better, so they are more often used.But due to the use of elastic fillers, there is less stretching of the outer surface of the bend.

Drawing of a typical machine

Now you can find a lot of designs of manual profile benders, which can be made from simple parts with your own hands and without special skills. One of the simplest drawings of a roll forming machine allows for radial bending of pipes and rectangular profiles. The need for just such a bend of the material arises most often.

Drawings of a homemade profile bender

The principle of operation of such home-made equipment is based on the use of three rollers - two support and the main worker. It is this working roller that will deform the pipe during the operation of home-made equipment.

The main working shaft must have a small free play, which will limit the parameters of the guides. For the manufacture of such structural elements are used:

• steel plates up to 8 mm thick;
• one large plate;
• a steel corner 30 cm long - you need 4 such elements;
• auxiliary rollers.

Auxiliary rollers are attached to a large plate using bolts, and using a welding machine, corners that will play the role of guides.

To increase the strength and reliability of the base, two steel corners should be welded to its bottom. To reinforce the guides from above, a metal plate with a hole is attached to them using a welding machine. Its diameter must exceed the cross section of the screw, which will exert the main load on the working shaft of a hand-made manual profile bender.

After the installation of the guide rollers is completed, the bending machine will be ready for operation, and it will be possible to give pipes and a rectangular profile any configuration on it with your own hands.

Spring for bending

All masters know about this method. Its essence is as follows: a special square-section spring made of steel wire is placed inside the pipe in the place where it is necessary to obtain a bend. The spring will serve as a mandrel, its cross section should be 1-2 mm less than the internal section. Using a blowtorch, the place of further bending is heated, applied to a blank with a suitable bending radius and, using force, is not sharply pressed until the desired curvature is obtained. This method is quite simple, but when using it during work, it is recommended to carefully observe safety precautions: work in special gloves and use pliers.

Features of bending profile assortment

It may seem to someone that bending a profile pipe along a radius without a pipe bender is not a difficult task: bend it with a hammer as you like, and that's it. But, practice shows that it is not so easy to bend this rolled metal. It is difficult to make a smooth curved shape while maintaining all the characteristics. The easiest way to bend this product is by taking a special household pipe bender to help.

The fact is that when changing the configuration, the pipe is affected by two forces:

• compression, which has an effect from the inside;
• tension acting from the outside.

When a professional pipe is incorrectly bent, it changes its shape and loses the coaxial location of some sections. Also, a stretching wall may simply not withstand mechanical stress and become unusable.In addition to these problems, incorrect contraction and wrinkling of the inner wall of the folded workpiece can occur. It is not uncommon for cases that it is easy to bend a pipe from a profile along a radius, but the workpiece is crumpled. After that, it is already suitable only for scrap metal.

The combination of these factors affects the unjustified increase in costs, which a serious owner will never allow

Therefore, despite the fact that this pipe range is quite flexible, you should not rush to process it, and before bending the pipe along the radius at home, it is important to study the technology in detail. This will be discussed further.

Technology should not be neglected. Only for a master armed with knowledge, the question of how to bend a profile at home will not create big problems. All recommendations on how to bend profiled metal products correctly are given by professional craftsmen who have studied this problem in practice for a long time.

Work at home without a machine

It will be possible to obtain the required bend from the profile pipe even without special devices. You only need a grinder, a welding machine and a metalwork yew. The algorithm will be the following:

• we measure the necessary pattern, and then draw a template on the free plane;
• we apply a workpiece to it and mark the bending point on it;
• we cut down three sides of a square profile, and on the fourth one you will need to bend the pipe without a pipe bender, clamping the free end into a yew;
• then we weld the resulting part in this position;
• after welding, the seams are cleaned and the workpieces are mounted in the intended place.

Before you cook profile pipe 2 mm, the welder must use protective equipment.On the welding machine, we set the current experimentally in order to use electrodes with a diameter of 3 or 2 mm. Large ones will not work here, because if you cook a profile pipe, for example, with a “four”, then the cavity will simply burn through.

What is the problem of profile bending

Rolled metal with a rectangular cross section is easy to use, blanks can be joined at different angles. Difficulties arise when there is a need to give the design details a curvilinear shape. This is due to the fact that a tensile force acts on the outer wall of the product, and the inner side is subjected to compression.

Attempts to bend a profile pipe without a pipe bender are associated with such problems:

• The appearance of cracks in the material. If the wall thickness is small, then metal rupture is possible.
• Crease of the sides. A similar effect occurs when excessive pressure is applied while passing workpieces through bending fixtures.
• The appearance of internal folds. The greater the height of the product profile and the smaller the dressing radius, the greater the likelihood of such a defect.
• Section break. Occurs when a sharp force is applied to the workpiece.
• Changing the section configuration. If the technology is violated, there is a displacement of the planes, the longitudinal axis, the curvature of the part in the form of a spiral.
• Reducing the strength of the metal. Such a flaw is a consequence of overheating and a violation of the crystalline structure of iron because of this.

It is not difficult to avoid such complications. It is enough to approach the matter competently and thoughtfully.

What units can facilitate the operation?

Option # 1 - compact manual pipe bender models

The purchase of manual pipe benders is only advisable if you intend to bend a small amount of material. As a professional tool, these models cannot be used due to low productivity and the need for an approximate adjustment of the bending radius of each product. This machine usually comes with several interchangeable rollers, by means of which the profile pipe is bent, depending on the size of its section.

To achieve the desired bending angle, it is necessary to drive the pipe through the machine several times. At the same time, each time you have to manually twist the central roller, lowering it lower and lower. The side rollers remain in a stationary position, therefore, under the pressure of the central roller, the metal profile is bent.

One of the models of manual profile benders, which allows bending a profile pipe on its own in several runs of a metal product between the side and central rollers

When working with a manual pipe bender, a person will have to apply physical effort. The equipment cannot be used for bending profile pipes with a cross section exceeding 40 mm.

Option #2 - electric pipe benders for the pros

Unlike manual pipe benders, electric models provide high-precision pipe bending. The fact is that the bending radius is set with an accuracy of 1 degree mechanically or electronically. The use of this expensive productive equipment allows processing a large number of shaped pipes per shift. Usually, the owners of electromechanical pipe benders provide services to the public, which should be used if you are satisfied with their cost.

An electromechanical profile bender installed permanently in the workshop provides precise bending of profile pipes of various sections along a strictly specified radius

The disadvantages of electric profile benders include their large weight and high cost, which is inaccessible to the average buyer.

Basic structural elements

Principle of operation

For the manufacture of a particular machine design, you should look at several diagrams to determine the set of parts. The fact is that, if necessary, all the components of the nodes can be purchased for money, but you can also use the materials that are on your farm and do not pay anything for it. In most cases, home craftsmen stop at frontal structures, and for this you should have available:

• three metal rollers (rollers);
• drive chain;
• axes of rotation;
• drive mechanism;
• metal profiles (channels) for the frame.

Sometimes, in the absence of metal rollers, they are replaced with wooden or polyurethane ones, but ... Such a rolling mechanism will not withstand a long load, that is, the machine will serve its purpose, but not for long. Is there any point in wasting your labor for a short-term benefit if, with effort or even paying a certain amount, you can find steel rollers?

Scheme of a simple pipe bender with dimensions in mm

As you understand, the process of profile deformation occurs with the help of rolling, that is, the pipe is rolled over rollers (rollers), which eliminates fracture and cracking.For rolling (bending) the profile is inserted into the rolling line (between the rollers) and pressed from above with a screw fixture or jack to the desired bending radius. Then, when the feed knob is rotated, the pipe moves and the bend runs along its entire length. It turns out that this is a manual drive, which is set in motion by muscular strength, but at home such a mechanism is very convenient.

The profile is clamped with a jack

To assemble a simple do-it-yourself pipe bender in question, you will need:

• jack (preferably rack type);
• metal profiles with a shelf for a horizontal and vertical frame;
• alloy steel springs (they are distinguished by high strength);
• three steel shafts with bearings;
• chain for drive (can be from a bicycle or moped);
• gears (leading and driven);
• thick fittings for axles and drive handle.

Video: pipe bending process

As you can see, it is easier to make a profile bender with your own hands according to the available drawings, and photo and video materials only help in this. The profile bender shown in the picture is driven by a handle that rotates a shaft with a drive gear. With the help of a chain, rotation is transmitted to the shaft with the driven gear, and the third shaft presses the profile from above to the required bending angle. Everything is very simple.

Movement manufacturing process

Bending device drawings

If you are interested in how to make a profile bender, then you will have to perform a series of actions that will ensure this reliability of the mechanism, and this:

• production of a powerful frame assembled by welding and bolt ties;
• according to the terms of the drawing (technical assignment), make and install the axis of rotation for the rollers. There are three of them - two rolling and one clamping;
• for the rotation of the rolling rollers, it is necessary to provide a chain transmission, that is, to weld (exactly) the driving and driven gears;
• weld a handle on the drive gear for rotation.

Manufacturing nuances

Ready pipe bender

If you have all the necessary parts available, then it is not difficult to make a mechanism for profile bending. First of all, you need to take into account that all rollers must rotate on bearings - the accuracy of rotation will ensure the correct rolling, without failures and kinks. The driving and driven gears must be correctly centered - a failure from the center by at least 0.5 mm will lead to incorrect deformation (the bend will turn out to be uneven).

The pressure roller must also be centered - the accuracy of the bending angle depends on this. Best of all, when the dimensions of all three shafts are the same - the rolled product is the most clear. The accuracy of rolling also depends on the rigidity of the clamp, so the shaft must be well fixed.

Devices for work

From the text above, it became clear how to bend the pipe at home. But all these methods are suitable for one-time use. If you need to constantly bend the material, then it is better to get a special machine. But since it is expensive, you can make a jig from metal.

As a rule, different diameters are often required for bent pipe products. Therefore, one conductor is simply not enough.

Do-it-yourself pipe bender

To mechanize the bending of the material and not spend money, you can make a home pipe bender. But even for such a device, a small investment will be required. For such equipment you will need:

• 2 rollers with a diameter of about 10 cm;
• 1 roller with a clip;
• metal stand.

Two rollers are installed and welded parallel to each other.The third roller with a clamp is installed just above the lower ones. In this way, you can put the material and press it with the upper roller. After the material is installed, it is enough to roll it in one direction and the other. If you need more angle, you can still clamp the upper roller and repeat the action.

The disadvantage of such an apparatus is that it will not be possible to make bends with a small radius on it. There simply isn't enough pressure on the clamp. The material that will be obtained after a home machine is ideal for greenhouses, sheds and other products where a sharp angle is not required.

Originally posted 2018-04-18 12:13:42.

Disadvantages of homemade machines

• Difficulty in minimizing the error in the bending radius of the workpiece.
• Limitation in the bend radius.
• Working on such machines is very difficult, so doing a large amount of work is simply impractical.
• Difficulty in bending pipes and workpieces with a large cross section.
• Difficulty in changing the shape in different parts of the workpiece.

If there is a need to work with parts that have a small cross section, you can get by with the simplest profile bender, consisting of two pins and a base. When deforming thicker parts, one should carefully consider their design features.

Particular attention is required when working with pipes, because for them there is a dependence of the maximum allowable bending radius on the wall thickness. In the public domain, you can find special commemorative tables for choosing the maximum radius

Despite the fact that the process of making a machine with your own hands may seem too complicated and will scare many away, the savings compared to buying a finished product can reach several tens of thousands of rubles.This argument in favor of self-made profile benders can be called very weighty.

The need for profile accounting

The category of profile pipe-rolling includes products that have a different cross-sectional shape - round, square, oval or flat-oval. Despite this diversity, for the construction of a greenhouse or a canopy, rectangular or are mainly used. This is due to the fact that it is much easier to mount the outer coating on their flat walls.

The range of modern profile pipes is very diverse. Their geometric parameters, the main of which are the cross-sectional area and wall thickness, determine the plastic capabilities of the product. The latter characterizes such an indicator as the minimum allowable radius of curvature. It is this parameter that allows you to determine to what minimum radius the pipe can be bent so that it is not damaged.

Avoid common mistakes that lead to damage to workpieces

To determine such a parameter of a pipe with or a rectangular profile as the minimum bending radius, it is enough to know the height of its profile. If you are going to bend a profile pipe with a cross section in the form of a rectangle or square, the following recommendations should be followed.

• Pipes whose profile height does not exceed 20 mm can be bent in sections whose length exceeds a value equal to 2.5xh (h is the profile height).
• Products whose profile height exceeds 20 mm can be successfully bent in sections whose length corresponds to 3.5xh or more.

Minimum steel pipe bending radii

Such recommendations will be useful to those who are going to bend profile pipes with their own hands in order to make racks, canopies and various frame structures from them. In this case, however, it should be borne in mind that the possibility of high-quality bending of pipes is also affected by the thickness of their wall. Products with a wall thickness of less than 2 mm should not be bent at all, and if it is necessary to create structures from them, use welded joints.

At home, it is possible to bend professional pipes, which are made of carbon or low-alloy steels, only taking into account certain nuances. Such pipes, after bending, can spring back and return to their original state, so the finished structures must be re-fitted according to the template. The springback value is characterized by such a parameter of profile pipes as the plastic moment of resistance - Wp. This parameter is indicated in the accompanying documentation (the lower it is, the less the professional pipes will spring during their bending).

Varieties of bending. We use a pipe bender

There are few options - either bend a profile pipe without a pipe bender, or use a machine of our own or factory production.

A general view of a manual pipe bender is shown in the figure. Recall that the corresponding devices are also produced with an electric, hydraulic drive, and even with numerical control.

Compact machine for bending hollow profiles

How to bend a profile pipe on a pipe bender is always indicated in the manufacturer's instructions.The trick is different: this technique pays for itself only with very frequent use. Therefore, we turn to more real problems.

Methods for bending pipes of large diameters

Relatively recently appeared methods are pipe bending with the participation of industrial and high frequency currents and bending with tension. In the first case, a high-performance high-frequency installation is used, in which a pipe with a diameter of 95–300 mm is heated, bent and cooled.

It consists of two parts - mechanical in the form of a bending machine and electrical, including the electrical part and high-frequency installation.

The pipe is deformed only in the heated area located in the zone of the inductor. The change in geometry to a given size occurs under the influence of a deflecting roller. By this method, it is possible to obtain a bend with a curvature of a small radius.

Bending using the second method is carried out on bending and stretching machines, which include a turntable. The pipe is subjected to large tensile and bending forces. Thus, steeply curved bends with a constant wall thickness along the entire circumference are obtained.

The method is used for bending large diameter pipes used in the aviation, automotive, shipbuilding industries, where high requirements are placed on the pipeline. The advantage is the ability to bend pipes with a wall of 2 - 4 mm by 180⁰.

Pipe bender for products with square and rectangular sections

Profile bending machine - a device with shafts, one of which, with free running under pressure, evenly bends the pipe of the desired shape along the entire length. The shafts are machined to a certain section. The pressure is applied gradually until the desired bend is reached.The force is applied manually or by means of an electric drive, hydraulics. A home pipe bender is designed for a small number of products to be bent, a professional pipe bender can be used for serial bending with guaranteed accuracy.

Due to the design features, the profile bender qualitatively bends steel pipes without heating both in a separate section and along the entire length at various angles, in various planes.

It is also possible to make a bending device with your own hands, it will take a lot of effort, time and money, but the process of bending pipes will become easier. Manual profile bending machine is easy to operate, has small dimensions, it can be installed in a garage or a small workshop. The pipe bender should be provided with a reliable stable position, the work should be done slowly, constantly checking the compliance with the template. The simplest option, suitable for thin pipes, is the Volnov roller machine. In a certain place of the workpiece clamped in a vice, a bend is formed by means of a roller, but good physical strength is required.

How to bend a profile pipe at home is not an easy question. You should take into account many nuances and do everything right so as not to spoil the material

Much attention is paid to the dimensions of the section, wall thickness, calculation of the bending radius, it is also worth deciding whether to apply heating, filler or not.

Types of pipe benders that can be made

These devices differ in their purpose. For example, if you need to bend a round metal pipe, bending machines are used that are designed specifically for round pipes.

As a rule, such home-made designs have rollers (or rollers) with a groove for a certain diameter of the workpiece.However, in some cases, dies with grooves for round tubes can also be used.

Slightly different devices are already used for bending square and rectangular profile pipes, as well as steel strips. And they are most often called profile benders (or pipe benders for a profile pipe).

Pipe bender designs may differ depending on what you want to end up with: just bend the pipe at a certain angle, or you need to make an arc or ring.

If you plan to make a serious structure with your own hands, which, if necessary, can be adjusted to different operating modes, then it will be difficult to do without a detailed drawing of a pipe bender.

Well, in the event that you need a simple budget pipe bender, then you can do everything without a drawing.

Some designs are quite compact and can be placed on a table or fixed in a vise without any problems. Other models - require a separate place in the workshop, and this must also be taken into account.

Roller Roll Benders

This design is quite popular among DIYers. Often improvised materials are used for its manufacture, which are in the garage or workshop.

At the same time, the dimensions of the device itself can be small, which allows you to easily install it on your desktop.

Make such a bending machine do-it-yourself pipe bender under the power of everyone. And this will not take much time. One of the budget options is presented in the article on the site.

A metal plate acts as the base of the bending machine. Break-in rollers (or pinch rollers) can be made on a lathe. If there is no lathe, you can order rollers from a turner.

Two pressure rollers are installed close to each other, metal strips are attached to them. The pipe bender handle can be made from a small piece of round pipe.

A handle-lever with rollers and an emphasis for workpieces are attached to the base (metal plate).

The base can be fixed to the table with bolts, drilling holes, or simply fixed with clamps. You can also weld a piece of plate to the base to clamp it in a metal vise.

Making a crossbow pipe bender

One of the features of this design is that it can be used both in a horizontal and vertical plane.

And in this case, instead of rolling pressure rollers, a stamp (or template) is used for a specific pipe diameter. And these nozzles can be changed if necessary.

How to independently make a pipe bender with your own hands, which works vertically, you can read in the review article. In such devices, as a rule, it uses a hydraulic drive - from a car jack.

With this homemade bending machine, you can bend round pipes at different angles. Pipeline parts are usually bent at an angle of 45 and 90 degrees.

The stamp itself can be made from an old dumbbell pancake. It needs to be cut into four parts. Then three of them are welded together. A groove is made in the center for the required diameter of the round pipe.

From channel or I-beam (you can also use a corner or sheet metal) a pipe bender bed is made. The stamp itself is mounted on the jack rod. At the top of the bed, stops for the pipe are attached.

As for the central roller axle securely fastened to the frame of the bending machine, it should be made of good steel.

Approximately the same design for a bending machine that works in a horizontal plane. However, in this case, a mechanical or pneumatic jack is used.