TPT July 2016

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28 July 2016
T E CHNOLOG Y
High-quality edge preparation
for welding seams
ALTHOUGH bevelling is mature
technology – the first Trumpf beveller
was launched over 50 years ago –
there remains continued demand from
industry for technology that is able to
provide high-quality edge preparation
for welding seams.
The latest bevelling machines from
Trumpf are still based on the chipping
principle developed by Professor
Berthold Leibinger in 1963. The
reason for this is that the process still
offers several essential advantages.
For instance it is economical and
guarantees uniform, oxide-free, bright
metal surfaces, without sparks and with
recyclable scrap.
There are many industries that see
high quality, reliable welded joints as the
foundation for their work and products.
Steel and metal engineering, marine
and vehicle construction are among
them, as are manufacturers of ‘hazmat’
containers and tanks.
Essential here is achieving joints of the
highest possible strength and alignment,
an ambition that not only requires fully
qualified welders but perfectly prepared
edges too.
For half a century, bevellers have
proved the right tool for this kind of
work. Such machines are not only able
to prepare straight edges in a single
operation but also sheet metal patterns
exhibiting outside radii or inner contours.
Tubes and small workpieces can also
be processed with ease.
The principal offer from Trumpf is the
TruTool TKF series of bevellers. Here,
smaller models such as the TruTool TKF
700 weigh just 5.4kg, which provides the
advantage that they are not exclusively
for shop use, but are portable and can
be used away from the factory at a
customer’s site.
The TruTool TKF 700 can be used
to prepare edges on sheet metal up to
20mm thick in the vertical or horizontal
position or even overhead. It can either
be guided by hand or mounted on a
workstation for static use. The unit
requires no extra tools to adjust the
bevel height and sheet thickness, and
comes with fixed angle cutter mounts
that help users produce bevel angles
of 30°, 37.5° or 45° to suit their specific
welding requirements. A quick-release
lock allows three defined directions for
tool carrier setting.
With the TruTool TKF 700 users can
prepare pipe with a minimum inside
diameter of 80mm, while bevels can
be produced inside cut-outs starting at
90mm diameter and curved edges with
a minimum radius of 40mm.
Sometimes customers believe that
these tasks can be performed using an
angle grinder. However, angle grinders
do not represent a real
alternative to bevellers
since the quality of the
edge is unpredictable and
thermal effects preclude
bright cutting edges.
This makes retouching
necessary, along with all the
associated issues of time
and cost. Furthermore, the
advancing speed of angle
grinders is relatively slow
and the short service life of
grinding discs can trigger
high labour costs and
operating expenses. Every
model in the range – from
the TruTool TKF 700 to the
TKF 1100 and 1500, and up
to the TruTool TKF 2000 –
chips away the material in
a uniform manner. This not
only makes for minimum
surface roughness, but the cut is
metallically bright and free of oxides,
thus delivering perfect conditions for
welding without reworking.
The largest TruTool TKF 2000 is
used primarily for stationary work. It
is available with or without a forward
feed, but in both cases, high quality
bevels can be created in mild steel or
aluminium sheet measuring between 10
and 50mm thick. The forward feed drive
will be of special interest to users who
principally work long, straight edges.
Once it has been positioned the TKF
2000 automatically advances along the
edge of the metal at a pre-set travel
speed of up to 1.4m/min. The machine
offers vibration-free operation with
minimal effort.
In short the bevelling process is not
only fast and economical, it is also
very precise and produces high quality
edges.
The cutters have two cutting edges
and can be re-ground numerous times,
and using the quick-release fastener
means they can be replaced with ease.
To sum up, Trumpf bevellers have
proven themselves in industries where
fast, reliable welding preparation is an
essential part of operations.
TruTool TKF series machines are
used on flat sheet, pipe and tubing
applications to produce clean, even,
oxide-free, metallically clean K, V, X and
Y edges.
Trumpf – UK
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High quality edge preparation from Trumpf