Fully electric tube bender from AMOB delivered at BAE Systems

The eMOB-100 fully electric tube bender was implemented into the company’s pipe shop in Scotstoun, Glasgow, to bend all of the piping on the upcoming Type 26 frigate – which is used to hunt submarines. With the system including 49 different tool sets, the installation and training team were with BAE for just under two weeks.

The customer’s requirements were clear and detailed – a fully electric tube bender with all available add-ons, to give them the most up-to-date system possible. The eMOB-100 was the perfect machine for the job. The whole project – from request for quote through to delivery – was just under two years long, which included visits to the manufacturing facility in Porto, Portugal, as well as existing customers (notably the Jaguar Land Rover plant in Gaydon) and a three-day factory acceptance test (FAT) in early 2018.

The FAT test went smoothly with BAE signing off on delivery of the machine there and then. The machine was then delivered 30 days later and installed over a weekend to minimize production downtime. Week one of the two-week training schedule consisted of getting the six pipe-fitters up to speed with the eMOB-100 and production test parts, while week two involved production assistance to smooth out any issues between training and full production – which started the following week. By the end of the second week, BAE were up and running to full speed and in production.

The eMOB-100 covers a range of sizes from 21.3mm x 1.6mm all the way through to 88.9mm x 7.1mm. For BAE, the material ranged from extra heavy-duty carbon steel to stainless steel through to 90/10 copper nickel. The multi-stack capability of the machine allowed the customer to produce 2D and 3D bends in a single length of tube – something they did not have the capacity to do before. Plus, the eMOB-100 gives them a brand-new processing capability in variable radius roll bending – something they have already been utilising and incorporating into the design of the Type 26.