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Drone and UAV Airframe Parts | Bent Aluminium Tube | Ø4–150 mm

We bend aluminium tube for drone and UAV airframes: arms, landing gear legs, payload and gimbal brackets, and the tube spars and struts used on gliders and light low-altitude equipment. Tube Ø4–150 mm, wall from 0.8 mm, in 6061, 6063 and 7075, welded to laser cut plates where a part needs a flat mounting face. Made to drawing in Panyu, Guangzhou since 2013. One piece minimum, 3 days for a sample with tooling already on the rack.

What is on this pageTube and plate. Not the electronics, not the composite.

Material	Aluminium 6061, 6063 and 7075. Some tempers are annealed before bending — 7075 is the grade that most often needs it.
Typical parts	Airframe arms, landing gear legs, payload and gimbal brackets, motor mount plates welded to tube, glider spars and struts, frame plates joined to tube.
What decides acceptance	Weight, hole positions, and whether the part is straight where the drawing says straight.
The trade-off	Thin wall is what makes the weight, and it is also what moves after welding. Both sides of that trade are visible in the quote.
Not included	Carbon fibre, composite layup, electronics, wiring, motors, flight controllers.

A 1 mm wall tube is bent here. Below 0.8 mm the wall thins too much on the outside of the bend to be worth quoting, and that answer comes in the first reply.

Thin wall is the whole problemEverything that is hard about an airframe part comes from wanting less material.

A thick-wall tube bends predictably: the mandrel holds the section, the outside of the bend thins a little, and the part springs back by an amount the die already accounts for. Take the wall down to 1 mm and each of those three things gets worse at once — the section ovalises, the outside wall thins further, and springback becomes sensitive to which heat of material the tube came from.

The mandrel decides whether the part exists — the radius-to-diameter ratio sets whether a mandrel is needed. On thin wall it is not optional, and it is why a radius below the die on the rack is a two-week tooling item rather than a same-week sample.
Welding moves the part — a bracket welded to a 1 mm wall arm pulls the arm. Holes are cut before welding and the assembly is welded in a fixture, so the holes stay where the drawing puts them.
Hole positions are quoted, not assumed — where the drawing gives a tolerance it is used; where it gives none, ±1 mm is applied and stated on the report.
Weight and stiffness are your calculation — we report what the part measures. Whether the airframe is stiff enough is not a claim this workshop can make.

The general range — diameters, walls, the eight bending machines by class — is on tube bending services. What a bend does to a wall is on bending tolerances.

Two parts that show the methodA welded bracket, and square tube bent to a large radius.

Y-shaped welded tube bracket before painting, tube to plate welds visible — A Y bracket before coating: tube to plate welds, drilled ends. This is the shape most airframe brackets take.

Stack of aluminium square tube bent to a large, consistent radius — Aluminium square tube at a large radius, stacked. Square section on a bend is harder to keep flat than round tube.

How a first order runsOne prototype, then the fixture, then the batch.

Send a drawing or a dimensioned sketch — tube size, wall, radius, bend positions, hole positions and the plate outline. A STEP file is welcome but a dimensioned PDF is enough to answer feasibility.
First reply is feasibility — whether the radius works on that wall, whether a die exists, and whether a new die or fixture is needed. No price in that message.
One piece first — the prototype is made so the fit can be checked before a batch. If the geometry has to move, it moves at this stage, when it is cheap.
Batch with the fixture — the welding fixture built for the prototype is what makes the twentieth part match the first.

Parts can be supplied bare, or with an outside finishing shop's anodising or coating arranged on your behalf. Passivation and anodising are not done in this workshop.

Limits — what we will not take onLow-altitude work brings questions about certification that this workshop cannot answer.

No carbon fibre and no composite. No carbon plate cutting, no layup, no bonded assemblies. Tube and metal plate only.
No electronics, wiring, motors or flight controllers. Airframe parts only, no assembly of a flying machine.
No airworthiness claim. We do not hold AS9100 / EN 9100, and no flight approval, load case or fatigue statement is issued here.
No design work. We make to your drawing. Prototype geometry can be quoted to your dimensions; the design decision stays yours.
No anodising or passivation in house. Both go to an outside finishing shop, or to yours.
Bending stops at Ø150 mm. Larger tube can be cut here, not bent.
No price without a drawing. Wall, radius and bend count move the figure more than quantity does.

Parts made here are manufactured to your drawing. Suitability for flight, payload, endurance or any regulatory category is the buyer's engineering and approval responsibility.

General information only — not engineering advice. Suitability for a specific application, load case or service environment must be confirmed by the buyer's engineer.

Questions from drone, glider and equipment builders

How thin a wall can you bend?

0.8 mm is the floor across the workshop, in aluminium as well as steel. Below about 1 mm the tube is bent on a mandrel, and the outside of the bend thins anyway. A wall and radius combination that will not hold is reported in the first reply, not after the sample is made.

Can you supply anodised parts?

Anodising is not done here. It goes to an outside finishing shop and can be arranged on your behalf. Bare parts are the default, because most builders have their own anodiser and a colour to match.

Can you cut carbon plate for a frame?

No. Carbon fibre and composite plate are outside what this workshop does — the machines here cut and bend metal tube and sheet. Aluminium plate, laser cut and welded to tube, is the usual substitute and is the kind of bracket shown on this page.

How close can hole positions be held?

Hole positions are quoted from your drawing. Where the drawing gives no tolerance, ±1 mm is applied and stated on the report. Holes are cut before welding and the assembly is welded in a fixture, which is what keeps them in place on thin wall.

Can I order a single prototype?

Yes, one piece. A new die or fixture adds about two weeks; the part itself is 3 days once the tooling exists.