Hot Off the Press

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Heavy-Duty Stretcher-Leveler
Lands at Ohio Service Center

Universal Steel, Cleveland, OH, has installed a high-strength stretcher-leveler from Butech, Bliss, Salem, OH, rated for material to ¾ in. thick by 74 in. wide, in lengths to 700 in. The unit boasts more than 3 million pounds of stretching force to flatten sheet in preparation for plasma and laser cutting and shearing. Because the workpiece material is left with no residual memory, processing problems related to warping or springback are eliminated. View a video demonstration of the line at www.univsteel.com; learn more about material-processing technology from Butech Bliss at www.butechbliss.com.

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ETA Provides Software to Foster
Academic-Industry Collaboration

Engineering Technology Associates (ETA), Troy, MI, is collaborating with Eastern Michigan University (EMU) to provide students with hands-on experience using forming-simulation and die-analysis software. ETA is providing the EMU College of Technology with its Dynaform, VPG and PreSys software, valued at $300,000, as well as in-depth training for the college’s faculty members. Also on the agenda as the two parties further their collaborative efforts: an internship program, a certified short finite-element-analysis course, and an advanced graduate course on ETA’s Accelerated Concept to Product process. More at www.eta.com; check out EMU and its College of Technology at www.emuch.edu.

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Bay-Area Fabricator Banks
on CNC Electric Tube Bender

SF Tube, Hayward, CA, a tube and pipe subcontractor with more than 20 bending machines, has added an all-electric software-controlled tube bender to its arsenal. The machine, from UK manufacturer Unison, allows the company to produce more complex tubular shapes than it can using its hydraulic machines, say company officials. These complex shapes include rotary-draw bent and rollformed curves, performed in a single machining operation—parts that in some cases used to require successive operations on as many as three different machines. The firm notes one example—a highly styled handrail for buses and trains that it now forms on the Unison machine at a 70-percent labor reduction. More at www.unisonltd.com; SF Tube is online at www.sftubebending.com.

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