AirForm@ is a revolutionary technology developed by Bryant Products. AirForm® is both a process and a family of machines. This unique and patented technology is available exclusively from Bryant Products. Products produced by the AirForm® process are more accurate, offer greater design flexibility and are free from the tooling charges associated with all other tube reduction technologies such as rotary swaging and hydro-forming.

AirForm is a tube reduction technology. However unlike rotary swaging, mandrel spinning and hydro-forming, AirForm® requires no hard tools, no mandrels or dies and no part or geometry specific tooling. AirForm® therefore offers the designer extraordinary latitude in formed tube design. Freed from the burden of costly tooling and the limitations of swage dies and interior spin mandrels, designers can produce shapes impossible for competing methods or develop straight tapers of new taper angles without the expense and lead time of tooling charges. Since there is no mandrel to extract from a finished part and the part is not passed through a straight tapered die, parts with concave profiles, trapezoidal crowns, multiple crowns on the same parts, parts with compound tapers or back-to-back reverse tapers can be readily formed. AirForm® does as the name implies – parts to be formed are suspended by their ends and the shape is then free formed into the tube while the tube is suspended in air.

AirForm® is, by far the most accurate tube forming process in existence. It is capable of producing parts with run-out tolerances limited to machined parts only but without the high production and raw material costs associated with machined parts. AirForm® is capable of producing run out tolerances that are far more accurate than will ever be possible by rotary swaging or mandrel spinning. Tolerances of .005” TIR are achievable with sub .020” tolerances common practice.

The economies associated with AirForm® parts are these:
1- All machined trapezoids and crowned pulleys or cores have to start out heavy wall tubing to allow for the removal of material. Since AirForm® reduces the diameter of tubing, rather than cut it away, conveyor pulleys and cores for various industrial rolls can be formed from lighter gage materials.
2- The cycle time AirForm® a part is 75% less than that of a lathe turned core or pulley without any sacrifice in run out or balance. In fact, the lighter mass of AirFormed shells often has a beneficial effect on the life of supporting members.

Design Considerations:

Since AirForm parts are free formed with the parts suspended in air, the column strength of the tube to be formed is a consideration. Wall thickness may have to be increased over that used in rotary-swaged parts for certain combinations of taper angle and length.

Our current capacity for starting diameter of the tube is 8 inches in lengths up to 72 inches. Maximum wall thickness is .135”. Larger machines can be built to run larger diameters, lengths and heavier wall thicknesses.

We currently work with various grades of low carbon steel, aluminum and stainless steel.

While 3 to 1 reductions (starting diameter to smallest developed diameter) are possible, there is some degradation of TIR with reductions above 2 to 1.

Multiple troughs and crowns – can be evenly spaced or staggered and of even or varying depths

Compound Taper – Multiple tapers and transitions – has been used in structural forms, and decorative furniture legs - flats and transition points can be infinitely varied

Concave Taper - Since there a no interior mandrels – parts with concave forms can be easily produced – many have been used as low profile troughing rollers

Drop Back Conveyor Roller with drive Grooves – Prior to the introduction of the Airform® all True Taper turn rollers used washers welded into the back end to step down the ID for a bearing. Airform® allows us to form the end down. This provides the advantages of greater concentricity, less weight, more engagement along the depth of the bearing’s housing an reduced component and manufacturing costs. Also, with AirForm®, we are able to form drive grooves in the original forming of the roll – not as an added cost secondary operation.

Crowned Pulleys – Trapezoid – we offer the only precision grade formed belt pulleys. The AirForm® process allows us to produce Trapezoid Crown pulleys that meet or exceed the tolerance standards of machined crowned pulleys. AirForm offers significant advantages. Since we are forming and not machining, we can start form lighter wall stock. The forming cycle is less than 50% that of machining. The bottom line- we can offer the form, and TIR of precision machined pulleys at a fraction of the cost and weight. Like the machined faced counterparts, we offer a full array of shaft, end disk, internal bearing or hub and bushing combinations. Also we soon plan to offer AirForm pulleys with a center groove for self tracking belts.

Bryant Pulleys vs. Competition – Type and Precision Level