B-24 Liberator
Inventive genius of Willow Run workers has made possible several new developments in the tube bending department. Here Mrs. Dorsey Workman is shown operating a tube bending machine equipped with a guaging device which enables the operator to pre-set the machine for any number of different bends. With the aiud of this gauge it is estimated that production has increased five-fold. A small light (which can be seen in the left center of the photograph above the dial of the guage) flashes on when the tube reaches the proper position for each bend and is ready for the bending operation. With the machine pre-set, eight or ten different bends can be put in a single length of tubing without removing it from the machine.; Using one of these machines during a single shift more than 300 large diameter tubes with five or six bends in each tube now can be produced. In the early days at Willow Run, it was considered real production for one worker during a single shift to bend 32 tubes, each with only two bends.
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