TPT November 2012

Tube and pipe mi l ls

Tube and pipe mills

Photo: Olimpia 80 Srl

This section of Tube & Pipe Technology reviews the basic apparatus of tube and pipe production: machinery which, over generations of hands-on practice, continues to evolve with advances in computer numerical control (CNC) and related developments. How to gauge “progress” year-to-year in a technology whose default setting is already state-of-the art? A useful exercise is to note how very little attrition there is in a modern tube and pipe plant. A builder of welded seam tube mills offers – in addition to the classic industry

standard still in wide use today – a universal shaft-driven style and a heavy-duty model. With the company’s single-point adjustment (SPA) feature, the new owner of one of its used units takes possession of a mill that is essentially re-engineered for a new day. Proven methodologies are not supplanted but enhanced. The companies represented in these pages know that the way forward lies in cautious and painstaking modification of the time-tested machinery and equipment of tube making.