TPT March 2012

T echnology N ews

Tool-independent tube forming DURING times of ever faster and more complex challenges to the science of tube production, tool costs are still as important a factor as ever. Nevertheless, it is common in tube forming that the form is mostly dependent on the quality of the tooling. The only ways to make small changes to the geometry were, until now, changes in the actual material length and by using different strokes. With huge effort and a lot of tools, flexibility and efficiency was starting to be lost. That is why transfluid has designed a radically different process to form different geometries on different diameters without special, geometry dependent tooling. High-strength materials and stainless steels can be formed as well as softer NE-metals

“For us it’s always very exciting to think a little further and to try out and create new technologies, for applications where the standard technique does not provide a solution,” said Gerd Nöker, managing director of transfluid. “And often the best solutions are in some effective details. For our new method for the tube forming only a very simple clamping jaw is in use. All other tools are independent of the geometry and the diameter of the tubes. A special feature of the new transfluid forming method is that the clamp length is around 1 x tube diameter. So most of the parts can be formed without using expansive form clamps.” The surface of the forming geometry can be produced with a perfect surface quality – even with rotationally symmetrical elements to create an optimal sealing surface. Where previously especially the reduction of stainless steel was a big challenge, the newly developed method is a safe solution. The tools are also completely free from wear. “Since our tube forming process is used specifically for diameter reduction or for keeping the diameter, it is possible that before the processing an axial expansion of the tube can be necessary. Of course, high-strength materials and stainless steels as well can be formed as also softer NE- metals,” explains Gerd Nöker. With its impressive solution transfluid has created a technical way to manufacture a big range of individual geometries with minimal tooling costs.

transfluid Maschinenbau GmbH – Germany

Email: info@transfluid.de Website: www.transfluid.de

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M arch 2012