TPT July 2015

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Straightening
80 July 2015
Square and rectangular sections
THE latest generation of linear cage
forming technologies has been put
into operation in North Europe, at a
manufacturer of high quality stainless
steel tubes.
The complete, fully automatic tube
mill, including surface finishing, tube
end facing, unloading and packaging
sections, can produce square tubes
from 40 x 40mm to 120 x 120mm, and
rectangular tubes from 50 x 40mm to 180
x 60mm, in a thickness range from 2 to
8mm in stainless steel austenitic, ferritic
and Duplex grades. The maximum mill
speed is 80m/min.
The mill can produce all square and
rectangular tubes within the size range,
without change of any rolls in forming,
welding, sizing, straightening and clamp
jaws in cut off.
The main advantages of the
technology include facility and rapidity
in changing the profiles dimensions;
simple maintenance; and simplicity in
software utilisation.
The mill makes it easy to produce both
square and rectangular tubes by means
of computerised control, where data is
stored in order to produce all the tube
sizes in the range. The PLC records all
the utilised data, and it is possible to
create particular ‘shapes’ with different
angles. From the PC it is possible to see
the ’tube flower’ to be produced.
The average time for changing
tube set-up dimensions is around ten
minutes. All the electrical equipment
and motorisation are engineered to save
energy, and to recover power and reuse
it in the line circuit.
Olimpia 80 Srl – Italy
Fax: +39 0523 864584
Email:
Website:
Bendcheck assures straightness
ABSOLUTE straightness is one of the
concise quality criteria in the production
of round bars and pipes. Bendcheck –
the precision laser measuring system
from Zumbach – monitors bending
continuously without missing any
sections directly within the production
process. This replaces the ODAC®
laser measuring heads used currently
to manually spot test with a non-contact
online test for bending. Apart from the
gain in quality the manufacturer also
saves considerable time through the
use of the online data check.
Bendcheck can be used for
synchronous real time scanning in the
production process; quality assurance
directly after the straightening process;
direct integration in the production
process (customer-specific installation);
and no time-consuming and laborious
checks with manual tools.
The system measures the position
and diameter of the product at three
different locations along its axis.
Bendcheck calculates the deviation of
the central measuring head in respect of
a virtual straight line projected from the
position of the left head to the position of
the right head, from the data. This value
is either divided by the distance or by
the distance squared. The operator can
select the preferred formula for the bend
calculation. Thanks to this information,
the bend of the product is continuously
calculated and graphically displayed.
Bendcheck can be operated in a
continuous measuring mode without
encoder, or in a triggered mode
where the measurement pulse is
generated by an encoder along the
cutting edge. The respective data is
clearly shown on a display board.
Diameter, absolute bend value, bending
angle as well as the individual and
current measurements of the three
measuring heads are clearly shown.
Additional statistics complement the
informative value of the measurement.
Zumbach Electronic AG – Switzerland
Website:
Customer-specific system installation with three ODAC® 18XY laser measuring heads
Double-sided turkshead straightener
RAFTER Equipment Corporation has
finished a new RT-2000S raft set and
double-sided turkshead straightener
for a North American tube producer.
The equipment will replace older
American Electric Fusion (AEF) tube
mill equipment that is worn and has lived
its useful life. The company reversed
engineered the raft plates and drive
shaft connections so that they would
work with the existing equipment. The
new driven and idle side roll stands will
include updated quick-change features
and be more robust than the ones they
replace. The turkshead will offer the
same improvements. Rafter Equipment
Corporation manufactures tube mills,
pipe mills and roll forming machines.
Rafter Equipment Corp – USA
Website: