All-Electric Benders from BLM
Drive Efficiency for JML Engineering
Twenty years ago, Alistair Bailey became disillusioned with working
long hours for the benefit of someone else’s business, so he made the
break and created JML Engineering Ltd to specialise in tube
bending and tubular fabrications.
The business developed through investment in
several used hydraulic tube bending machines,
with key customers providing steady orders for
security (bollards and crash protection) and
safety (hand railings and cages) products.
These old hydraulic machines served the business
well, but as with all things, age started to tell and
support for them from the manufacturers became
non-existent. Recognising it was time to invest
further in the business to improve productivity
Alistair researched the market and identified that a
switch from hydraulically operated benders to all-
electric was the way to go, and this saw the arrival
of his first BLM all-electric multi-stack tube bender,
an Elect 52. “Breakdowns on our hydraulic machines
were becoming an increasing issue and the decision
to invest was made for us because of this. The arrival
of the BLM Elect 52 certainly eased the demands
being placed on production due to business growing
rapidly and the Elect 52 handled the bending of
smaller handrails with ease,” says Alistair Bailey.
A key advantage of the BLM All-electric Elect
machines is the speed at which they can be set-up
and the guarantee that bends will be consistent,
without any need for adjustment from the start
of a batch to the last tube being finished. The CNC
control on the Elect machines manages all of the
clamping and slide pressures to ensure consistency
of the bend, once the tools have been changed, the
operator simply calls up the program and the control
takes care of the bending process. “On our hydraulic
machines, on which we were very well versed, it could
18 TUBE NEWS June 2019
take 45 minutes to achieve a first off, after which
there would be a degree of trial and error before
we got the bend just as we wanted it. Now, we can
complete the set-up in less than 15 minutes and
know that the first tube will be within specification.
Scrap is a thing of the past thanks to the uniformity
of the process and the software in the control is a
major benefit. For example, the B-Tools software
helps to eliminate the requirement for manual
adjustments, which were always needed on our
hydraulic machines.”
B-Tools software is part of the standard VGP3D 3D
graphic programming software contained within
the BLM control and functions by taking theoretical
data of a part to be bent and automatically applying
corrections from a database of materials and
bending experience. a correction from data stored
a database of prior bending experience in similar
materials. Overall the VGP3D programming software
allows the user to either create a part program at