TPT November 2010

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November 2010 43 ›
Technology Update
SOLUTIONS FOR AUTOMOTIVE
T-DRILL offers full range of fabrication solutions
for your tube forming and cutting applications for
automotive industry.
S54
The T-DRILL collaring method enables reliable
and easy T-joining of tubes. It is cost-effective
solution for fluid carrying systems being used
in heating, cooling and power steering tubing.
TCC  Series
The T-DRILL chipless rotary tube Cut-Off systems provides a
highly automated, fast and accurate method for cutting small
diameter tubes to length from coils or straight lengths. In-line
Endformers are available for all common end forms in copper,
aluminum and steel.
WWW.T DRILL.FI
IT’S THE TOOLS
THAT SAY HOW GOOD YOU ARE
Measuring 3D
bent profiles
PROFILES have become more important for the industry in
recent years. Architecture and design offices, engineers and
engine manufacturers work on many different variations of
innovative profile techniques, and solutions for process optimised
bending tests are daily tasks. TeZetCAD from TeZet is able to
measure not only freeform bent round tubes but also freeform
bent profiles.
Profiles are more versatile than tubes, and provide more
opportunities in applications and more operational rigidity,
referring to machining and design projects, than the traditional
round tube.
Supplementary functions can be integrated into a profile, for
example supporting surfaces or screw-on parts, sealing or joining
functions, or locating surfaces as formclosures.Three-dimensional
transformation acts as an additional challenge. Possibilities and
applications are so widely spread that the follow up of their
realisation into production is not straightforward. Advanced
engineering of the automotive, aviation, aeronautics and nautical
industries, amongst others, collaborate with different national
and international universities and research and development
companies, to be able to assure a smooth bending production.
The three-dimensional transformation of freeform bent profiles is
more complex than that of tubes. A tube has a round cross-section,
and may get a light ovality because of the deformation, but in the
end the centreline stays the same. Non-circular profiles are as
different as the applications for which they are designed. They may
be symmetric or asymmetric, may have only one chamber (square,
rectangle, hexagon) or multiple chambers. The deformation of the
profile outlines and the cross-sections of asymmetric chambers
may change more than those of a round tube.
In TeZetCAD, freeform bent profiles are measured in a tactile
manner, and not with a laser as freeform bent tubes. If the user
has long profiles and ‘loses its way’ with the tactile probe on the
material, he can go back or just start a replay measurement of
the lost path, without interruption of the whole measurement.
The established method of leap-frogging – if the parts are longer
than the workspace of the measuring device – is possible without
losing the coordinate system and without interruption of the
measurement.
TeZet Technik AG – Switzerland
Fax: +41 56 2492878
Email:
Website:
Measured 3D profile