Unison has received an order from Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), the supplier of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and one of two shipbuilders of nuclear-powered submarines for the U.S. Navy, for an all-electric CNC machine capable of bending large-bore tubing and piping up to eight inches in diameter (219mm OD).
The machine will be the first of its type ever built, extending the shipbuilder’s range of precision software-controlled bending facilities to include fabrication of larger diameter pipes that previously could only be bent on very high torque hydraulic machines. Unison believes that it will be the largest and most sophisticated all-electric pipe bender ever designed.
All-electric benders offer numerous advantages over the type of hydraulically powered machines traditionally used in heavy industries such as shipbuilding. Their precision servomotor-based motion control means that they can be configured automatically using parts data downloaded from the design database over a network, and are easy to operate and very quiet.
“This latest order from Newport News Shipbuilding highlights the flexibility of our bending machine control technology. Through collaboration and the support of our partners in the USA, Horn Machine Tools, we have gained a thorough understanding of the needs of this prestigious shipbuilder, and have helped and advised them on numerous aspects of pipe and tube fabrication,” said Jim Saynor of Unison.