Above: Elect benders store position and power parameters with the part program, facilitating accurate work.

Electric benders, lasers streamline tube forming operation

April 2021 - Fabricators have always worked to become faster and more flexible, but advances in equipment technology make that goal easier to attain. Riker Products has been bending and processing tube since Walter Riker founded the Toledo, Ohio, company in 1932. It has streamlined its operations over the last several years by installing lasers and electric benders from BLM Group, Novi, Michigan.

Riker and BLM Group began working together after meeting at a Fabtech show, says Shelly Vargo, Riker’s executive vice president. “We needed to do some upgrading on our shop floor, so we took a team of employees to the show.” After reviewing quotes and visiting BLM Group’s North American headquarters in Michigan, the Riker team believed the machine tool manufacturer was a good match.

Riker Products installed two Elect 150 benders in 2018—and “once we ordered those, BLM Group invited two people from Riker to join them in Italy, where they have their main headquarters,” Vargo notes. There, they saw other products in the BLM Group line, watched parts run and “asked all the questions we wanted to ask. While we were there, we came to the decision to not only upgrade the benders but also add lasers, which would help us automate and diversify,” says Vargo.

Riker followed up its bender order with a BLM Group LT-Free 5-axis laser and an LT7 model in 2019, then continued with two more Elect benders and an LTFiber lasertube in 2020.

BLM Group’s LT-Free can handle complex part geometries on three-dimensional sections.

Simplify processes

Kurt Koepfler, vice president of operations at Riker Products, says the company “processes a lot of different jobs and different configurations,” to create exhaust, air intake systems and custom-formed tubing for applications that go into general industrial parts, military, mining, on- and off-highway equipment, recreational and power sports vehicles, automotive and aftermarket products.

“We have two different styles of lasers,” Koepfler says. “Two just process straight tubing, and then the LT-Free is used post-bend to laser cut to customer specifications.”

Having a set of machines from the same manufacturer is helpful because “they communicate with each other. The benders communicate to the laser and the laser can also communicate with the benders—both programming and scheduling aspects.”

Right now, however, most of the parts run on the two lasers are bypassing the bending department, Koepfler says. “Once we purchased those two lasers, we picked up business that we typically would not do. So, most of the parts being cut on the two lasers are for specific customers—they get cut on the laser and shipped out the door.”

In the future, Riker expects to further apply the lasers’ capability to communicate with the benders and reap the benefits of that collaboration.

In addition to the new business, Mark Foster, Riker’s president, says the two lasers have “helped operational efficiencies on the welding side. We’re now able to cut tubes on the tube lasers and take them directly to welding without a lot of the secondary operations that we have needed in the past. Instead of having to move a particular part throughout the shop for multiple cuts, we can do it all on the tube laser and go right into welding.”

The LT7 lasertube is a fully automatic machine for maximum productivity and fast production changes.

Dependable quality

BLM Group equipment features technical innovations that facilitate fast production changeovers, precision and quality of processes. In addition to eliminating process steps, Riker Products has found that the lasers maintain tolerances throughout the operation. “There are little to no adjustments after we’re up and running,” Foster says.

The Elect benders provide automatic setups with no manual adjustments. On Riker’s older equipment, “everything is based off operators’ memories,” Koepfler says. “They adjust the equipment manually. With the BLM Group machines, the operations are controller-based. When you put a certain tooling set on the machine or a certain type of material, the operator uploads it into the controls, and the machine will automatically set the parameters. So, the next time the operator needs to come back to that job, which we do often, he punches in the part number, makes sure the right tooling set is in there and the right material—and you don’t have to tweak the machine to make it work. It’s a very accurate way of working.”

BLM Group collaborates with customers to ensure they are maximizing the equipment’s capabilities. “They have a really great training program,” says Vargo. “They trained our operators and our maintenance people” on machine operation. “We sincerely appreciate the business partnership that we’ve developed with the folks at BLM Group.”

Seize the day

Adhering to pandemic protocols while installing new equipment has its challenges, but for Riker and BLM Group, the new installations went smoothly—on task, on time and on budget. “Historically, we have used hydraulic benders,” Foster says. “And we continue to have those as part of our operation, but the electric benders are improving our efficiencies and operational excellence tremendously. Time is money. The more we can be efficient and the more throughput we can get, the better we can satisfy our customers.” MM