WIRE BENDER TYPES AND THEIR FEATURES

Wire bending operations play an important role when it comes to formation of 2D and 3D shapes. They have a wide range of applications that include production of architectural models, antennas, jewelry, surgical implants, signage, and puppetry among others. Bending of thick wires into desired accurate shapes will definitely require a wire bender. Otherwise doing the whole process by hand may lead to inaccuracies and injuries as well. There are many types of wire bending machines that are supplied in machinery shops and artisan shops. Some are simple and manual in operation while other are sophisticated CNC machines.

Most people find it economical to make a personal wire bender from scratch. The needed raw materials in such a case are nails, flexible tubing, pieces of wood, and a drilling machine. Two pieces of wood are joined together by a hinge that allows them to turn and form various angles in between. Nails are positioned strategically on the pieces of wood so that they can hold the wire to be bent in place. The hollow ductile tubing is used to hold the wire during bending. Sometimes a helical spring is used in place of the tubing. This type of bender is most appropriate for production of 2D bends with angles more than 90 degrees. The main disadvantage of this method is that complicated designs cannot be achieved. This calls wire-bending machines that are more sophisticated.

Sophisticated types of the wire bender come in two main versions: the manual type and CNC type. The manual type is made of a cylindrical disk that has holes used to vary the angle of bending for the wire. They operate more or less same as the simple type mentioned above. However, they can work with a wide range of angles. They can also be used to produce shapes that are more complex.

A CNC wire bender is used to convert vector drawings into intricate 2D and 3D shapes. The user will only have to feed the machine with the desired design and leave the rest to the microprocessor. The machine operates like a printing machine in the sense that wire is loaded into the feeder and bent into intricate shapes by a series of rollers. The output is nothing but the design fed into the computer by the operator. One more advantage is that the operator does not necessarily have to use a straight wire since the machine has a couple of rollers at the feeder end used to straighten the wire.