RCP Phx
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Phoenix,Az
I have yet to see an exhaust shop with a mandrel bender. All that I have ever seen are press benders.
A mandrel bender takes up nearly as much floor space as an automobile.
Here is an example of what a mandrel bender looks like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdtrTaY7yfk
That long bar that runs the length of the machine is the support for the mandrel. Around the 40 to 45 second mark you can get a decent sense of the mandrel itself. It is comprised of several jointed segments which are able to follow the bend and support the pipe from the inside.
I cannot see a mandrel bender making sense for an exhaust shop. Just the time to change over the tooling from one tube diameter/bend radius to another would be prohibitive, never mind the setup time to go between patterns.
While that's a true mandrel bender, a good tubing bender doesn't "ripple/indent" the pipe