If you've ever seen a four-slide wire-forming machine, you will appreciate what a radical departure this is from the past. What used to be done with custom-machined forming dies can now be done with software.
Michael, thanks for sharing that link! I'd really love to see a slow-motion version to understand exactly what that forming pin is doing.
With my last job I visited a company to buy a CNC mill off of them and they had one of these! It was probably one of coolest things to watch in person. The speed and precision of a machine that really looks pretty basic was amazing!
Ron, thanks for that! Now I can see what that pin is doing. At first I thought it was moving closer to and away from the feeder. But now I see that it's just retracting to get to the other side of the wire.
That's truly incredible to behold. I suppose its main limitation to part size would be the inertia of the wire itself - once it gets so large, then the part can't be whipped around so fast without the inertia undoing some of the bends. Cool.
There is sure to be a restriction also on how small a loop you can form with the wire completely bent back on itself, since the feeder gets in the way. One thing that still puzzles me, though, is that it seems it can do only flat wireforms, yet the video shows examples of multi-turn coils. Is there something hidden in the feeder that rotates the wire as it's being fed? (It would have to rotate the spool and wire straightener, too, to keep the wire from twisting.)
Phil it just feeds the material and it slides up on the wireform. Most likely the part will have a small helix when you would check the part flatness.
We just picked up a new AIM 3D 10MM machine and I have older 4slide Baird 3-24's. I can make a demo video of some parts being made.
We mostly make wireforms for the automotive industry. Car seat parts, hood/striker latches, seat belt anchors to name a few and powder coating hooks.
Thanks, Paul; more videos would be great! Due to my past association with a fishing lure company and my own pathetic attempts to build wire-straightening and -forming tools, I'm quite fascinated with these latest CAM-based formers.
I still have not made a video of my wire bender in action, but my bender is better, because it is Parallax Propeller based Just kidding. I have admired this machine in the past.
@Phil: Sorry, I haven't been able to make that video sooner. We have had a job with a NDA attached to it and It turned into a double run. Brutal job but its for a new customer. I'll get some good vids up in a day or two.
@Bruce: I've seen your posts on the machine you built and great job . Unless I missed one of you recent posts I'd ike to see some close ups of it running.
mpark
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Doesn't matter, it's fast & fantastic!
Making specialty springs comes to mind.
S hooks
coat hangers
various supports and frames used in other things
If you start looking, you'd probably be surprised how many places you see things that contain bent wire
Michael, thanks for sharing that link! I'd really love to see a slow-motion version to understand exactly what that forming pin is doing.
-Phil
I took a segment of the video and slowed it down to 25% of the original speed.
-Phil
-Phil
We just picked up a new AIM 3D 10MM machine and I have older 4slide Baird 3-24's. I can make a demo video of some parts being made.
We mostly make wireforms for the automotive industry. Car seat parts, hood/striker latches, seat belt anchors to name a few and powder coating hooks.
-Phil
@Bruce: I've seen your posts on the machine you built and great job . Unless I missed one of you recent posts I'd ike to see some close ups of it running.
I was just joking about my machine being a better bender, but it does a pretty good job for its intended purpose.
I am only about 35 miles out of Chicago. Just come on by and take a gander.
Bruce