TPT-January-2015

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January 2015 39
Re-Bo Metal cutting circular saw
blades are precision tools
Highest performance and best
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can help to cut your manu-
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Made in Germany.
3DTop-Performance-Tube.indd 1 24.05.2012 14:22:21
Mills for automotive tube industry
RAFTER Equipment Corporation
manufactures tube mills, pipe mills, roll
forming machines, cut-off machines,
and other related mill machinery. For the
automotive tube industry, in particular,
the company has produced several mills.
A common automotive tubing
application is the production of
exhaust tubing. This includes lighter
wall 409 stainless steel using both
high-frequency induction (HFI) and
laser welding techniques. Another
application is fuel line tubing, which is
generally formed and welded at a larger
13mm diameter and subsequently cold-
stretch reduced to a final size as small
as 4.76mm OD. Automotive drive shaft
tubing is another application.
A growing market segment is the
production of direct-welded profile
sections for use in auto body structures.
This application generally involves the
addition of pre-punched holes so that
secondary operations can be eliminated.
Both HFI and laser are used to weld
these profiles.
Rafter still manufactures its equipment
solely within the USA, which allows the
company to control the manufacturing
process to ensure shorter and on-time
deliveries. The company states that in
many cases it can ship orders before the
promised delivery date.
Originally started in 1917 as a
roll forming machine builder, the
company was purchased, relocated,
and transformed into a tube mill
manufacturer in 1988. Rafter Equipment
has since provided nearly 100 tube
mills and more than 400 mill accessory
upgrades. Its focus is to provide robust
equipment that is simple to operate and
maintain.
Rafter Equipment Corp – USA
Fax: +1 440 572 3703
Email:
Website:
Rafter’s RT-3000 drive shaft tube mill