TPT July 2009

T echnology U pdate

10-roller straightening

Sema Systemtechnik is a manufacturer of machines and plants for the tube and bar industry, including 10-roller straightening machines. The 10-roller straightening machine has become an important component during the production of precision tubes, due to the continuously increasing quality demands placed on every modern tube producing company. Sema’s straightening machine produces very good straightening results. Using a variety of straightening procedures

(see sketch) a straightness of up to 0.1mm/m is achieved. Furthermore, roundness and exterior and interior surfaces are improved. The Sema straightening machines are manufactured in different sizes, to handle diameters from 3mm to 200mm. The machines can be delivered as dry or wet straightening machines.

 Straightening procedures of the 10-roll straightener

Bymeans of a newly developed straightening device, the uncoiled pipe is directed into a production stable alignment. At the following insertion of the pipe into the cross die head of the Unicor die set, a perfect straight movement of the pipe is made possible. With the newly developed die set the gap between the inserted smooth pipe and the conduit pipe is minimized to a space-saving minimum. Those corrugators equipped with an SPS S7-200 control unit, used for the optimal synchronization of all production line components, can achieve a production speed of up to 35m/min. This depends on the pipe diameter and the polymer chosen. At these high speeds it is very important for the pipe producer to use a suitable semi or fully automatic coiler that coils the converted pipe at the end of the production line. When setting-up, the operator has only to input the diameter, wall thickness and yield point at the operating panel; the adjustments occur automatically. Corrections of the single straightening rolls can be carried out, to optimise the straightening results, using an electronic hand wheel. These values are transferred and saved by the program; future set-up times are significantly reduced. Sema Systemtechnik GmbH – Germany Fax : +49 5744 931891 Email : info@sema-systemtechnik.de Website : www.sema-systemtechnik.de

Each of the ten straightening rolls has an individual drive, to minimise the relative

movement between the straightening roll and the tube. Motors are used to make height and angle adjustment of the straightening rolls.

 Sema Systemtechnik straightener

Latest UC 58 model for one-step pipe-in-pipe production

Unicor, Germany, has introduced its latest corrugator series UC 58 for pipe-in-pipe production. The machine was launched at a symposium in front of an international audience of pipe experts at Unicor’s technical lab in Hassfurt. The UC 58/90V machine has 90 pairs of mould blocks, while the model UC 58/120V has 120 pairs of mould blocks. The machines can achieve a very high production speed combined with increased quality due to new developments concerning the vacuum units of the corrugators. Unicor developed the new model after research into pipe-in-pipe production lines. The company found that most Pex-pipe and Alu-Pex pipe was produced in up to three different work steps. The first step was production of the pipe to be protected, the second step was completion of the corrugated conduit pipe, and the third step involved manual or mechanical insertion of the smooth inner pipe.

The company recognized that this three- stage production was inefficient and costly. The new technology provides one-step inline production. The UC 58 machines enable complete production of a pipe- in-pipe product with one production line, together with offline pipe-in-pipe production off the coil. Using this machine can considerably minimize personnel costs compared to the production process in various production steps. Further advantages of the inline production are the decreasing costs for storage and transport compared to separately produced Pex and Alu-Pex pipe combined with considerably higher quality of the pipes. Theofflinemodel offers thesameadvantages of high pipe quality and high production speed. A prefabricated product (Pex-pipe, Alu-Pex pipe or cable) is taken from a coil and inserted into the simultaneously produced corrugated conduit pipe.

Unicor GmbH – Germany Fax : +49 9521 956 9121 Email : ralbert@unicor.de Website : www.unicor.com

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J uly 2009

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