TPT May 2014

Bending, endforming and swaging technology

A close-up view of Haven’s End finishing and inspection machine

In the progression from workpiece to product a length of tubing is guided through many interim steps, none more important to the final result than the specialities under review here. They make a logical grouping. Bending imparts the shape that enables a tube to serve a broad set of uses; endforming and swaging adapt it to a specific purpose.

of industrial history, but it also fittingly conveys the particularity and attention to detail of the modern process. No longer a matter of hammering out on an anvil, in a modern tube mill all three techniques continue to reflect the pride in craftsmanship of earlier times. Taken together, bending, endforming and swaging occupy a pivotal place – midway between the point of manufacture and the point of sale – in state-of- the-art tubemaking.

The derivation of the word swage from the Middle English “ornamental border” may be a charming bit