TPT July 2011

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118 July 2011 ›
Cutting, Sawing & Saw Blades
Circular blades in
2,000 specifications
TANGSHAN Metallurgical Saw
Blade Co, established in 1963,
produces five kinds of circular
saw blades with more than 2,000
specifications, including metal hot-
cutting circular saw blade, metal
cold-cutting circular saw blade,
TCT circular saw blade, and HSS
segmental circular saw blade.
The company applies the latest technology and equipment to
develop its product range, and claims to be the first saw blade
manufacturer in China to pass the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001
Quality Certificate system. Tangsaw has imported advanced
manufacturing machinery and technology for producing saw
blades, such as a CNC TCT grinding machine, automatic brazing
machine and laser cutting machine from Germany, as well as an
automatic heat treatment line from Japan.
Tangsaw cooperates with universities and institutes for
technology research and product innovation. The company
drafted and enacted the industry standard for Metal Hot-cutting
Circular Saw Blade (YB/T5223-2005), Metal Cold-cutting Circular
Saw Blade (YB/T4208-2009) and TCT Circular Saw Blade (YB/
T4207-2009).
Tangshan Metallurgical Saw Blade Co Ltd – China
Fax: +86 315 205 3342
Email:
Website:
Aluminium TCT saw blade
Robots and plasma cutting in modern manufacturing
DIVERSIFICATION is becoming an
increasingly important factor. Dairytube
Engineering, Ireland, produces stainless
steel tubing products for the dairy industry,
including dairy bends up to 100mm,
manifolds and special fittings to order.
In contrast to these products however,
Dairytube also supplies bull-bars and
stainless steel trims for the motor vehicle
industry.
Norman Shekleton, managing director
of Dairytube, must achieve specific results
for each industry he supplies. This often
involves cutting preformed sections of
tubes into highly complex shapes, and so
a robotic solution was called for in order to
properly handle the required cuts.
For example, the dairy industry requires
dross-free cuts and weld-ready cut
surfaces to prevent contamination, whereas
motor vehicle components need to look
aesthetically pleasing and be consistently
accurate, especially when it comes to
lettering.
The solution was to use a Thermal
Dynamics Ultra-Cut 100 high precision
plasma cutting system fitted with the new
XTR high precision robotic torch, mounted
on an ABB 4400 6-axis robot.
As Dairytube cuts primarily thin materials,
it is not possible to achieve the desired
cut quality using the traditional, expensive
mix of argon-hydrogen as the plasma gas,
and nitrogen as the shield gas. However,
Thermal Dynamics high precision systems
can use an alternative process known as
‘water mist secondary’ (WMS).
The WMS process used by Dairytube
is exclusive to Thermal Dynamics plasma
cutting systems and is claimed to deliver
outstanding cut quality on non-ferrous
metals at speeds of up to three times faster
than the traditional argon-hydrogen method.
It has enabled Dairytube to achieve results
at reduced costs by using nitrogen as the
plasma gas and ordinary tap water as the
secondary gas.
A reducing atmosphere is produced in
the cut by the release of hydrogen from the
secondary water. This reducing atmosphere
significantly reduces oxidisation on the cut
surface and washes dross away from the
back of the cut. As the majority of the water
used during the process is converted into
gas, there is no need for disposal.
Mr Shekleton commented, “I was very
impressed with the quality of cut I was able
to achieve from this system using water mist
and nitrogen on thin gauge material, which
achieved results very comparable to laser
cutting.”
Thermadyne Industries Limited – UK
Fax: +44 1257 224 800
Website:
Effect of N2 /H2O plasma on non-ferrous