Various industries such as land and air transportation vehicle manufacturers need strong and at the same time light weight components such as, for example, pipes. Thin-wall pipes made from alloys of aluminum, titanium, rust resistant steel, etc., are widely used in such industries and are bent with various radiuses and bending angels. In order to reduce weight on the one hand, and volume on the other hand, these pipes are typically formed with minimum bend radius. As a result, due to the specific characteristics of light and thin-walled pipes, conventional bending methods cannot be used for bending such pipes with high bending radiuses (e.g., when bending radius is equivalent of the pipe outside diameter), because bending such pipes using the conventional methods may cause changes in the thickness of the pipe wall, occurrence of tears or wrinkles in the pipe wall, or deformation or upsetting of the pipe. Therefore, a need exists for a device and method for bending thin-wall pipes to prevent damages such as deformation or upsetting, change in the pipe wall thickness and tears or wrinkles to the pipe body.
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