Tube Bending for Aircraft and Aerospace
Small-diameter alloy tube bent tight, where the wall has nothing to spare.
What aircraft work brings to a bending shop
Hydraulic and fuel lines, bleed air and environmental control ducting, ground support equipment tube, and structural tube inside tooling and fixtures.
Aerospace tube is the opposite end of the shop from a 42 inch pipeline bend. Diameters are small, walls are thin, radii are tight and there is no margin in the wall to give away to thinning. That is mandrel bending work: ball mandrels supporting the wall through the tangent point and wiper shoes stopping the inside of the arc wrinkling. Tulsa has a long aerospace maintenance and manufacturing base, and Tulsa International Airport is 5 miles from the plant.
Codes and standards: Customer and OEM specifications, usually with material traceability and process control requirements that go well beyond any commercial code. Send your project specification with the enquiry and we will confirm in writing what we certify against before anything is cut.
Materials and traceability
Titanium, stainless, aluminum and nickel-bearing alloys are all on the list of materials this shop bends. Titanium in particular needs care because it picks up oxygen and nitrogen from the air at temperature, which is one more reason cold bending suits this work.
Material traceability, positive material identification and the documentation that ties a heat number to a finished part all have to be specified at enquiry stage. PMI and elemental analysis are available here.
What to send with a aircraft enquiry
Five numbers describe a bend: outside diameter, wall thickness, centerline radius, bend angle and the tangent length on each end. Add the material and the quantity and the job can be priced. A drawing, a sketch or a photograph of a marked-up print all work, and the quote form takes an attachment up to 25 MB.
For aerospace tube, send the material designation, the wall, the diameter and the centerline radius together, because the four decide whether a bend is possible before anything else matters. Send the traceability and process control requirements at the same time rather than afterwards.
Put the documentation requirements in the enquiry rather than in a later email. Material test reports, non-destructive testing and heat treatment all cost money and time. Retrofitting a documentation package onto a bend that has already been made is slow, and sometimes it is impossible.
Materials we bend
If the grade you need is not listed, ask. This is what comes through most often, not a limit.
What we can bend for you
How we would make it
Wall thickness, radius, material and schedule decide the process. Send the drawing and we will tell you which one fits.
Heat Induction Bending
Cojafex induction bending up through 42″ O.D. and 4″ wall, in any radius, angle or plane.
Coiling
Helical, spiral wound and serpentine coils, cold, up through 10″ pipe.
Cold Bending
Rotary draw bending on fourteen machines, with mandrels and wiper shoes where the radius needs them.
Mandrel Bending
Ball mandrels and wiper shoes for tight radii and thin walls that would otherwise collapse.
Large Diameter Pipe Bending
The work most shops turn away: up to 42 inch outside diameter and 4 inch wall.
Stainless and Alloy Bending
Stainless, duplex, Hastelloy, titanium and nickel alloys, bent without wrecking the metallurgy.
Questions we get from aircraft buyers
Can you bend titanium tube?
Yes. Titanium is on the list of materials the shop bends. Cold bending suits it because no heat goes into the part, which avoids the oxygen and nitrogen pickup that hot working titanium causes.
How tight a radius can you hold on thin-wall tube?
It depends on the wall-to-diameter ratio and the material together. Send all three numbers and we will tell you the tightest radius that holds your wall thinning limit, and what tooling it needs.
Can you provide material traceability?
Yes, where it is specified at enquiry stage. PMI and elemental analysis are both available here. Retrofitting a documentation package onto a finished part is slow and sometimes impossible.
Have a drawing? Send it over.
Send a drawing or a sketch and our team will get back to you with a quote.