We recently expanded our bending capabilities with the purchase of a new SOCO NC80 mandrel bending machine. This machine increased our bending capacity to up to 3” (76.2 x 1.6) tube with a Centre Line Radius (CLR) of 1.5 times the tube diameter (1.5 x D) and a 180-degree swing. It bends stainless steel, mild steel, and aluminium tube with flawless, distortion-free bends, even up to a full 180 degrees.

A notable feature of this machine, compared to our old yet reliable BLM machine, is the 8 programmable rotation stops via a ‘tail-stock’ like clamping system. These rotation stops allow us to achieve unquestionable accuracy when dealing with multiple-plane jobs or jobs with lots of twists and turns (compound bends). This feature is particularly beneficial for high-quantity jobs, ensuring virtually no variation between each unit. At the moment, we have bending dies for standard tube sizes from 1” up to 3”, with more bending dies for both tube and pipe sizes to follow.

Our aim is to develop blocks for many uncommon tube sizes that can’t be found anywhere else.