The Technology Behind Haeusler's Innovative Machines

Proudly family-owned, the third generation of the Haeusler family is continuing the tradition of innovation, reliability and premium quality with new ideas and new energy.

Haeusler's new four-roller plate bending machine—the EVO—is a perfect example of the company's innovative approach. The EVO features Haeusler's Hybrid Drive System HHDS®, which provides unmatched efficiency due to the consequent usage of electrical motors in combination with planetary gearboxes. In practice, this means savings of up to 50% of the running costs. Additionally, the HHDS® allows a step-less adjustable rotation speed from 0 - 8m per minute. Compared to other machines available on the market, this is an increase of 60% and the basis for high productivity. The use of optionally available special sensors also enables predictive maintenance of the machine, reducing unscheduled downtime.

VSA® TECHNOLOGY

With EVO's newly developed and patent-pending VSA® technology, the bending range is maximised with a performance increase of up to 85% achieved. By using two instead of only one pivot point for each side roll swing arm fixation, the machine can individually be adjusted either to create a wide bending geometry for heavy wall thicknesses or a tight geometry if small diameters need to be bent.

According to Mathieu Reichardt (Sales, Haeusler), "VSA® technology allows the operator to bend either very heavy wall thicknesses or very small diameters. This can be realised through a unique adjustment of the bending geometry. A machine with this range of geometry is unique on the market—there is no other machine that can do both the large and small diameter parts."

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Perhaps most impressive of all, the EVO is the first bending machine in the world with integrated artificial intelligence. The Evo's control system, Bendtronic®, comes standard on all machines and enables the operator to achieve perfect bending results right from the beginning.

Bendtronic® allows single-pass as well as multi-pass plate rolling and can be used for any kind of product shapes like cylinders and pipes, ovals, tanks or other more complex geometries even up to S-shaped workpieces.

"Bendtronic® enhances Evo's CNC functions. Bendtronic calculates and generates the CNC program and feeds it into the EVO. The Bendtronic® will determine if the job can be done, and how many passes will be required. It offers other capabilities as well, including the ability to calculate the machine's capacity," said Reichardt.

"Bendtronic® adds the capability of automatically generating CNC programs, based on the desired workpiece dimensions and characteristics. At the same time, it is intuitive and extremely user-friendly."

The simple and intuitive user interface of Bendtronic® guides operators through the highly complex bending process. This eliminates unwanted surprises and leads to targeted bending results. In the offline version of BENDtronic®, information can be obtained in advance for the bending process and rework.

This offline version can be operated separately from the bending machine so that the machine is as productive as possible. This includes, for example, feasibility checks of bending tasks, machine utilisation, bending program creation, employee training and other countless features.

The EVO offers a range of advanced add-ons too, from an advanced cooling system for ambient temperatures up to 45°C, and lateral side supporting devices for large diameter shells, through to an infeed roller table for the easy infeed of the plates into the machine.

Originally published from Steel Australia Spring Edition 2021