TPT March 2011

A utomotive T ube & P ipe M anufacturing

Tube mills developed for automotive products

Officine MTM SpA, Italy, is the manufacturer of tube mills for the automotive industry. The company began manufacture of these mills in 1984, with the first application being a complete tube mill for tubes in high tensile carbon steel, with small OD and thick material. Since that time several tube mills have been developed specifically for automotive products, for carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminum alloys in different applications. MTM currently has a comprehensive range RSA, a German sawing technology specialist, has launched the Rasacut XS, a high-performance circular saw for tube diameters from 6 to 25mm. The machine was developed as a response to recent technological developments in the field of circular saws that have generally been aimed at high output of the 10-100mm diameter range. The minimisation of variants in the automotive industry is leading to larger batches for the production of semi-finished products made from tube, hollow sections and solid bars. However, quality demands are also increasing. A machine concept aimed at a wide spectrum of workpieces can cope only to some extent with demands made by highly specific parts, eg line systems in the automotive sector, where extremely strict requirements are applied concerning the degree of purity and precision of the tubes. However, the large quantities allow comparatively low piece costs. Multi-cut or bundle cut saws are generally used for the production of large batches in the diameter range up to 25mm. However, aimed at an improvement in quality and lowering of piece costs, the new RSA development counts on the single cut. The fully automatic processing cycle – even for large fixed lengths of 2,000mm or longer – presents an essential advantage. When working with bundle cut saws, tubes are manually bundled. The workpieces are counted, fixed with an adhesive tape and inserted into a prismatic guide that feeds the tube bundle to the saw. With the Rasacut XS, tubes are automatically singled and fed. This method also allows one person to operate several saws. The new RSA system is beneficial during further processing of tubes after cutting. In case of bundle cut saws, fixed lengths can fall apart after cutting – the so-called

that can satisfy most requirements of tubes for automotive industry. For carbon steel tubes, the company offers its expertise with complete tube mills for seats, shafts, engine supports and frames. Exhausts are made in aluminized and galvanized carbon steel as well as in HF welded stainless steel. For aluminium radiator and heat exchangers, MTM has a specific range of complete solutions for welded and folded tubes, as well as charging air cooler sections. The company also has experience ‘mikado effect’. The feeding of the tubular sections to another processing step, such as deburring, requires further logistics – either an automatic singling machine or the manual feeding of a magazine. The Rasacut XS can be modularly expanded into a processing centre, combining in one line the processes of sawing, deburring or facing and chamfering, checking of lengths, roundness or chamfer, cleaning and stacking. RSA claims that the Rasacut XS achieves in a single cut output values that are as high as those of multi-cut or bundle cut saws – and depending on the dimensional range, even more – due to the reduction of ancillary times. Material is fed by means of a gripper with an acceleration of up to 40m/s². The next tube is fed during the current sawing process, avoiding a loss of time during the changeover to the next stock length. On the basis of the Rasacut XS output values, around 150 changeovers to the next stock length are required per hour for a tube with 8mm diameter and a fixed length of 250mm, for a stock length of the random material of 6,000mm. This example shows the importance of ancillary times with regard to the total output. As an example of output: round tube with a diameter of 12mm and a wall thickness of 1mm, material E235. For a fixed length of 150mm the output of the saw adds up to 4,014 pieces per hour. Forward feed and drive of the saw is effected through servomotors. The saw blade diameters are between 175 and 200mm, and depending on the material, HSS, carbide or solid-carbide saw blades can be used. The specific tuning of the teeth profiles with the material and workpiece characteristics of the parts to be cut is done by RSA.

in manufacturing tube mills for hydroforming applications. Due to its partnership with Atomat, a worldwideleaderindesignandmanufacturing of roll sets for the tube industry, MTM can offer turnkey plants complying with the

highest quality standard. Officine MTM SpA – Italy Fax: +39 041 999611 Email: sales@mtmtubemills.com Website: www.mtmtubemills.com

Saw specifically designed for small diameters

RSA Entgrat- u. Trenn-Systeme GmbH & Co KG – Germany Email: tiemo.krause@rsa.de Website: www.rsa.de RSA Cutting & Deburring Systems Ltd – UK

Fax: +44 1952 580511 Email: rsa.gb@rsa.de Website: www.rsa.de

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