Patent ID: 7293444

Claim:
A bending apparatus for rod-shaped and tubular workpieces, said apparatus comprising: a displaceable bending head having arranged thereon a rotatable bending mandrel with a bending groove for contact with the workpiece to be bent and a clamping device, which is displaceable relative to the bending mandrel and concentrically rotatable relative thereto, for clamping the workpiece between said clamping device and said bending mandrel, and said apparatus comprising a feeding device for the workpiece; the bending apparatus being adapted for both right-hand bending and left-hand bending of the workpiece around the bending mandrel, and wherein the workpiece can be made to contact the bending mandrel on one side thereof in a predetermined bending direction and on the other side thereof when changing the bending direction; wherein the bending head also comprises a wrinkle smoothener, which, when viewed in the feeding direction of the workpiece, immediately precedes the bending mandrel and comprises two sliding jaws between which the workpiece may be located and wherein each sliding jaw defines, on a side facing towards the workpiece, a first forming groove that is substantially complementary to an outer contour of the workpiece, and wherein the groove can be made to contact the workpiece; one sliding jaw being displaceable relative to the other sliding jaw in a direction substantially perpendicular to the feeding direction of the workpiece and both sliding jaws and the clamping device being displaceable and/or rotatable, from one side of the bending mandrel to another side of the bending mandrel for changing the bending direction around the bending mandrel into a corresponding arrangement which is substantially mirror image inverted relative to a plane that extends substantially through an axis of rotation of the bending mandrel and substantially parallel to the feeding direction of the workpiece; and wherein the sliding jaw on the side of the bending mandrel is substantially freely rotatable on a support axis extending substantially parallel to the axis of rotation of the bending mandrel and the support axis is shiftable relative to the bending mandrel, towards it and away from it, substantially parallel to the feeding direction of the workpiece, said sliding jaw being arranged such that it can contact the bending groove of the bending mandrel by shifting the support axis towards the bending mandrel with the end of the sliding jaw's forming groove facing towards the bending mandrel, such that the forming groove is substantially tangentially contiguous to the bending groove of the bending mandrel.