Giant Bends For Spiral

GIF of wrapping a spiral bend model made of flexible tubing around a barrel.

Recently we received a request for some “giant elbows, about a 15 ft. radius to load material up a silo. This was hard for me to comprehend— for these bends would be not only huge but bent three-dimensionally. When the prints and drawings came in this seemed impossible. What they wanted was a Silo Helix.

So, we made a suggestion. Rather than bend these sweeps three-dimensionally, we could make these large bends in two dimensions and pivot them on the tangents. We made a simple model shown below.

Model accepted: Then we went ahead to make the bends. The one pictured above is 70° on a 192” CLR.

These bends are composed of our Provista PETG tubing, 4.75” OD x .250 w. This tubing is FDA-approved and NSF compliant for food transport.

We were amazed at the result and happy to have a part in this.

 

A collage of images. Top photo shows a model of the giant bend around a mock up of the silo. Middle photo shows a design schematic of the silo helix bend. Bottom photo shows the fabricated tubing bend made of provista (PETG).

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