Briggs and Stratton are not only involved with I.C. engines, but also produce tubular frames for their Generators and Pressure Washers for the Power Products Division in Jefferson. Configurations of tubing include 3-different tube profiles, as well as 3-different tube centerline radiuses.
Before purchasing the OMG Twin Head CNC bender, 95% of tube fabrication was completed on CNC horizontal rotary draw tube benders. When Briggs purchased their first OMG Twin Head Bender, we found that one of these machines could just about produce as much product as three horizontal CNC benders. Of course this also required two less operators as well.
Implementation of the first machine reduced scrap rates significantly and adjustments to the machines were just about eliminated. With less variability in the bent tubing going from the bender to the robots resulted in a substantial decrease in repairs after the robot welding operation.
Flexibility and programming are also key with these benders. Frequently, we had to change over tooling on the bender to run different configurations. Tooling changes were relatively painless and downloading a program that ran two weeks ago would run just as well as it did before. Sometimes, due to material variations, the only adjustment that needed tweaking was the degree of bends due to material variations. Programming changes such as these were easily accomplished by the machine operator because the programming software and operator interface of the machine controls were easily trained to any level of operator.
With such a success of the first machine, Briggs and Stratton ended up purchasing three more identical CNC machines and two NC as well for a total of 6 twinhead bending machines from OMG.
David Laundrie
