Minimum bending radius for tubes

May 05, 2006 7 Replies

Hi!



I have to bend a stainless steel tube...how can I know the minimum bending radius for it?



Thanks a lot! M.


Dear Mario:

How will you bend it? If you use commerical tooling, these bend radii are built in. If you are doing it yourself...

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solder seemed to provide a (very slow) means of reinforcing the tube during bending.

David A. Smith

The rule of thumb for regular sch. 40 pipe is five or six times the [nominal] pipe diameter. Heavier sch. 80 pipe can be bent smaller...like 3 x dia. or so. Thinner tubing would require a greater radius.

There is also a chart here:

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on page 7.

Don Kansas City

Mario said the following on 5/5/2006 04:10:

My rule of thumb is anyone can bend a tube to a bend radius of 4.

I have purchased quantities of custom bent 1-1/4" tubes as tight as 2.5. Bends this tight require someone skilled in tube bending.

If you need tighter bends, go with castings or machined parts.

Lance

*****

"Mario" wrote in news:hoG6g.109892$ snipped-for-privacy@twister2.libero.it:

It depends on the tube diameter, wall thickness, heat treatment, specific alloy (stainless covers a lot of alloys), and probably most important, the specific bending methodology. Talk to the fabricators who are going to do the bending, they will give you a practical answer. If you want to dig into the literature, you can start at (sorry for word wrap):

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HI!

They are:

stainless steel dint (internal diameter)=2,6mm and dout(esternal diameter)=4mm

inconel tubes of dint 1mm and dout=3mm

...what do you think? THanks a lot

"Charly Coughran" ha scritto nel messaggio news:Xns97BA5D95032F4ccoughranucsdedu@132.239.1.221...

Again, the most important variable is the bending equipment, but since this is pretty thick wall tubing (relative to ID), I would be surprised if you can't get a 1 diameter bend radius. Take a look at

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Click on the benddie.pdf at the lower right hand corner of the page and you will see dies for bends close to your dimensions. You would probably have to invest in the production of a die.

THanks a lot!...It seems to be a very interesting web site!

"Charly Coughran" ha scritto nel messaggio news:Xns97BA8C922EF61ccoughranucsdedu@132.239.1.221...

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