TPT November 2013

50 / 128

Technology News
48 November 2013
Fitting fabrication
RITMO SpA is an Italian company with
more than 30 years of experience in
the manufacture of plastic welding
equipment and tools for thermoplastic
pipes.
The company offers a complete range
of workshop fittings fabrication machines
such as elbows, wyes, crosses, tees,
and the Alfa Line with working range
from Ø 40 to 1,600mm, for
the production of HDPE – PP
fittings.
Alfa 1000 is a CNC workshop
welding machine designed
to fabricate elbows from
Ø 400 to 1,000mm,
and wyes, tees and
crosses from Ø 400 to
800mm. The elbows jaws
movement, open/close
and blocking, are electro-
hydraulically operated.
Alfa 1000 is an easy-to-use and
precise machine. It is equipped with a
machine body with two hydraulically
controlled carriages; the control panel
features a CNC system that makes it
possible to carry out a whole welding
cycle in a simple, intuitive and repeatable
way, so that the operator’s interference
is reduced to a minimum.
A built-in memory allows the machine
to store 4,000 welding cycles, including
the set diameters and SDR.
The welding data can be transferred to
a PC via USB slot and data management
software.
Other features include a Teflon-coated
heating plate with hydraulic movement
(in/out) on spherical bearings guides; a
milling cutter with hydraulic movement
(in/out) on spherical bearings guides,
operated by an electrical engine,
provided with eight steel blades; and an
upper cylinder, to be positioned on the
jaws, for welding extra thick pipes and/
or whenever it is necessary to use high
pressures.
Ritmo SpA – Italy
Fax: +39 049 9901993
Email:
Website:
Ritmo’s Alfa 1000
Flexible roll forming systems
By Jack Pennuto Jr, director of sales and marketing, Formtek Inc
WITH the increased emphasis on small
batch or single piece production, to
meet order fulfilment on the fly, some
manufacturing processes, particularly
roll forming, have struggled to respond
to this new, dynamic environment.
Due to the long setup times that can
be required when switching between
roll formed profiles, it is common for
manufacturers to run a customer order in
conjunction with an amount of inventory,
to cover projected needs of the product
for the coming weeks or months. This is
a common way to rationalise the setup
cost of the machine, which can take
a couple hours or up to a few days,
depending on the complexity of forming
the product.
Doing this with each changeover of
the machine, manufacturers can quickly
end up with a significant amount of
finished goods inventory, and although
based on historical sales and product
usage, short term changes in the mix of
business or other environmental factors,
ie new industry codes or certifications
deeming a product obsolete, can stretch
the turnover of the inventory, and
likewise the liquidation of the product
into revenue, to much longer than
intended.
Formtek has tackled this roll forming
challenge by removing the obstacles
that result in long changeover times.
The Supermill® roll forming machine
offers a patented gauge adjustment
technology, for uniform compensation
of tooling gaps in the horizontal
and vertical planes, ensuring profile
dimension consistency across a range
of material thicknesses, and without the
need for an operator to perform manual
adjustments. The machine can be
designed with multiple forming zones,
to enable discrete adjustment of unique
features, such as profile height, width,
leg length, etc, even switching from an
inside bend (C-Channel) to an outside
bend (Hat Channel).
Finally, a programmable entry guide,
coupled with short horizontal centres,
precision bearings and roll tooling work
together to form traditionally coilfed
products in a precut arrangement. This
last feature removes the rethreading
of different coil sizes when changing
products, and enables the use of
common fabrication tools, ie turret
press, laser or cut-to-length equipment,
to create the notched, tailored blanks
to be formed. The end result is that
the Supermill ® system can produce a
one piece roll formed order, without
production of extra, finished inventory,
and the changeover times are as little
as fifteen seconds.
The system is equipped with
motorised, programmable adjustment,
so the operator can select the profile to
be run, by choosing from the included
part master database, scanning a
barcode from the incoming material,
queuing production from a network
or input the profile dimensions on the
operator’s touchscreen. All feature
dimensions, as well as over-bending,
flare compensation, and material
thickness, can be stored and adjusted
by the main touchscreen control. The
system can be supplied with an entry
feed conveyor, for coupling with an
upstream coil processing system or as a
stand alone machine, to feed it discretely
from existing fabricating equipment.
Supermill® systems such as this
have been supplied for a variety
of applications in the construction,
fenestration, furniture, lighting, and
mechanical component markets.
Formtek – USA
Email:
Website: