TPT November 2016

28 / 84

26 NOVEMBER 2016
T E CHNOLOG Y
Adda Fer Meccanica double head
end-facing unit
ADDAFer has established itself as a top-
class manufacturer of tube machinery,
extending its product catalogue from
complete tube mills to finishing lines.
Machines that obtain API certification
such as end-facing and hydro-tester
machines are now standard for Adda
Fer. The new target is consolidating
productivity and maintaining the best
quality.
End-facing is generally a process of
bevelling one side of the tube at a time,
and also just one tube at a time. Adda
Fer has improved its machines in order
to be able to work two tubes at a time
using two parallel heads that bevel the
two tubes simultaneously.
This permits the customer to have
almost double the time to bevel the tubes.
This is very important when the tube mill
is really performing and the risk is that
the bottleneck could be the time taken to
complete the bevelling of each tube.
In order to speed up the cycle time as
much as possible and to avoid moving
the short tubes for long distances,
one pair of bevelling heads is fixed
and another pair moves to reduce the
distance the tubes have to be moved to
process the correct length.
In this way, loading, moving and
bevelling two tubes each time, the time
available for the operation is higher
(almost double that of the single tube
version) and the productivity increases
with no impact on the process.
One other advantage is that the
machine does not require a complicated
system of motorised rollers to move the
tube. It only needs a cylinder to move
the tube a few centimetres in order to
align it perfectly before the bevelling.
The tube is clamped with two
hydraulics grippers (one per tube) in
order to stabilise it during the bevelling
operation.
To have the ability to block the tube
while avoiding vibrations, there is a
vice for each measure of tube. The
bevelling heads are also automatically
adjusted on the centre of the tube by
PLC. The line is automatically set
up to the correct size. A system with
brushless motors moves up and down
the axis of the mandrels to centre them
with the tubes.
Adjusting the working length also
depends on the tube length and this is
automatically set up by the PLC. Three
motors move the conveyors and the
moveable bevelling head.
Adda Fer End Facing EF4 is able to
process the following ranges of tube:
round tubes from 30 to 114mm outer
diameter; tube lengths from 3 to 12m
all under automatic control; speed up
to 120m/min (with tubes 6m long, six
seconds to process two tubes); four
chain conveyors to support the tubes
with all the ranges; two parallel bevelling
heads with the possibility to mount
external, internal and frontal inserts to
finish the surface as desired; brushless
motors to automatically adjust the axis
of the bevelling heads depending on
the tube diameter; and a sophisticated
system to motorise the mandrel on the
two tubes in parallel with the same motor
using a telescopic mandrel controlled by
a brushless motor.
Siemens components and Siemens
Sinamics drives and inverters are used
to allow full automation of the process.
The interface permits the operator
to have full control of the parameters
in order to create the perfect bevel
and maximum efficiency. Interactive
diagnostics also allow the operator to
identify the cause of any operational stop
or anomaly in the system immediately.
The alarm/failure signals follow a
logical sequence and the operator will
be warned in plenty of time if there is a
problem. The problem will also be saved
to a database for later diagnostics and
maintenance.
Meccanica Adda Fer Srl – Italy
Fax: +39 035 4946564
Email:
Website:
The Adda Fer
Meccanica
end-facing unit