03 5854 6317
F&S and Blue Boy – a formidable combination
F&S Exhaust Tools
F&S has been manufacturing tooling for the exhaust industry since 1988. Twenty years of experience is what F&S brings to the table! Jeff Summers and Bob Forbes began a mechanical repair and engineering business in 1962 calling it Forbes & Summers, working on all things from mowers to earth moving machinery, once a Fiat Tractor dealer.
These days Jeff and son Mark supply tooling to distributors across Australia and New Zealand for all brands of hydraulic workshop benders.
Besides the exhaust industry F&S has supplied machinery and tooling to companies including Blue Scope Steel, General Motors Holden, Holden Special Vehicles, Fleetguard Australia, Hardy Wines, Aero Manufacturing, and industries such as bull bar manufacture, playground equipment and steel structure manufacturers.
F&S specialises in tube benders and tooling, choosing Blue Boy as its tube bending machine of preference. A wide range of spare parts for Blue Boy as well as other makes of benders and kept in stock.
Blue Boy Benders
F&S Exhaust Tools is the Australian distributor of AMH Blue Boy exhaust tube benders and offer a range of bender and tool package options. According to F&S’s Mark Summers, the AMH product was right up there when the idea of commercially manufacturing tube benders was conceived back in the late fifties by Gerry Huth. “Since its conception in 1962 AMH has been a market leader in tool development, reliability and quality based tube benders around the world,” he said.
Sam Grimaldo started the business in the USA, opened another facility in Canada in 1978 and now AMH Canada makes the Blue Boy product.
AMH USA is now a separate entity concentrating its efforts on production style bending and tube forming machines for the manufacturing industry.”
AHM Canada exports 75% of its product worldwide. Customer bases exist in North America, the United Kingdom, Central Europe, South Africa, the Far East, Central and South America and of course Australia.
Machine Refurbishing
In a market experiencing rapid change and uncertainty, the option to rebuild the customer’s existing worn out machine has become one that many are now taking up. From ram rebuilds and tool tidy-ups to complete resprays and refurbishment, F&S can recharge the old faithful for a fraction of the cost of replacement.
Hydraulic Ram Rebuilds
Stocking a large range of shafts, seals and cylinders F&S offers a ram rebuilding service for those leaky, bent or broken hydraulic cylinders. Fast turn-around time is assured as F&S recognises the workshop’s reliance on its tube bender. Replacement hydraulic hoses are also available. If they don’t have the part in stock, they’ll make it for you!
Portable Expanders
These little Blue Boy units are a must for any exhaust fitting workshop. Completely portable, allowing tube to be expanded on the vehicle without the need to waste time removing mufflers or parts of the system to resize slip joints crushed by over tightening of exhaust clamps. For example:
Falcon tail pipe replacements where the rear of the centre muffler is crushed by the clamp. You look very amateurish when you are belting in a resizing plug in front of the customer using a hammer!
These units are powered by workshop compressed air through their own air/ hydraulic pump. Just couple it to the air lead and use the foot control to re-size the tube professionally in seconds. Most makes of segment sets will fit F&S’s portable car expander arbour.
These portable expander units are available in two models: The F&S Standard Portable Car Expander catering for sizes from 1 ½” – 3” and the F&S Portable Truck Expander for sizes 3” upwards.
Stand-alone Swagers
Whilst these units can be manufactured to individual specification the “Big 6” version (pictured in the advertisement opposite) is proving very popular with recent sales booming reports F&S.
Tube Notchers
F&S has two specialised tube notchers with one to suit 1½” to 3” tube and the other 3” to 6”. Details can be vied on the www.fstools.com.au web site.
Specialised Tooling
Almost all of the specialised tooling in Australia is manufactured and supplied by F&S ranging from Nominal Bore, Angle and RHS bend sets to segment sets beyond 3” to suit engineering applications. F&S stocks a full range of segment expanders to expand tube sizes from 1¼” to 8” and they also stock Collector Formers in ‘two into one’, ‘three into one’ and ‘four into one’ in a range of popular sizes. Taper reducers in a full range of standard sizes, ID and OD sizes are also available plus replacements for the unreliable ‘slip twist’ swager tooling variations supplied on some benders over the years can be retrofitted with better designed, sturdier and more reliable tool systems. No more broken pins!
Catalogue & Web Site information
Call us now for your free illustrated F&S Catalogue and AMH product sheets on 03 5854 6317 or you can download it from the www.fstools.com.au web site which also includes handy reference material for identifying tooling applications and details past bender projects undertaken by the company.
