TPT May 2012

T echnology N ews

Plasma annealing and cleaning for precision tubes

products. Plasma treatment will benefit the applications with demanding surface quality requirements or challenging annealing requirements. Such applications are usually found in sectors such as medical, precision mechanical, electronics, aerospace and energy sectors. The tube manufacturers who adopted plasma annealing have recognised the value from low cost of ownership in comparison to traditional tube or muffle furnace. The benefits of plasma treatment include more that 50 per cent lower energy use, 10 times lower purging gas consumption, the saving from dry, chemical-free degreasing and surface cleaning. Increased annealing speed by the factor of five or more results in fewer take ups and payoffs and lower cost of maintenance. Manufacturers of coated tubular products may find plasma surface preparation prior to coating or metallic plating also an area of potential interest. Since the introduction of plasma heat and surface treatment process in the wire industry in 2003 Plasmait continuously improved the process and widened the application scope to include annealing and surface treatment of tubes and flat products. With more than 52 deployments of plasma treatment lines worldwide Plasmait established itself as a trusted supplier to the wire and tube industry. Plasmait GmbH – Germany Fax: +44 7810 810 656

Plasmait supplies plasma heat and surface treatment lines

PLASMAIT GmbH, a supplier of plasma heat and surface treatment lines for wire, tube and strip production, has introduced a new PlasmaANNEALER for continuous annealing and cleaning of precision tubes. PlasmaANNEALER has been designed for continuous heat treatment, degreasing and oxide removal of precision and thin wall tubes. PlasmaANNEALER can be used on a wide range of ferrous and non-ferrous materials with OD range between 0.1mm to 5mm. Thin-walled tubes with diameter up to 10mm can also be annealed with the new plasma process. So far Plasmait has demonstrated successful annealing and surface cleaning

on tubes of various materials including copper, copper alloy, stainless steel and nickel alloy tubes. PlasmaANNEALER is equipped with a vacuum system to ensure controlled atmosphere and exceptionally low usage of purging gas. The plasma-heating zone is complemented with appropriate length dwell zone to allow for annealing of materials like stainless steel and nickel, that require extended time at temperature to achieve complete annealing. According to Plasmait’s R&D director, Peter Ziger, the dedicated tube trial facility is now available to all tube manufacturers who strive to improve the quality of their tubular

Email: info@plasmait.com Website: www.plasmait.com

A new modular concept AS a result of its modular design, the FLEX machine series from Escofier provides many application solutions for all kinds of cold rolling processes used with dies. The two sizes of machine base enable it to accommodate a large range of work pieces. The maximum rolling force of the cylinder (from 5 to 60t), the energy (electrical or hydraulic), the spindles sizes and the different solutions of motors assure precision when making all types of standard profiles, Incremental ® , Syncroll ® , roll-finishing of gears, densification of powered metal parts and tubes. The main characteristics are: a cast iron base available in two sizes assures optimal rigidity; high accuracy of carriage movement due to the ground guides; two movable carriers are symmetrically moved by a single cylinder; spindles are rotated by reducers or direct drive shafts; the spindle

diameter is adapted to the rolling dies and applications; movements are controlled by PLC, numerical axis or CNC; optional force control and position control systems for the gear finishing process; and optional easy taper and helix adjustment. Escofier – France Email: svandenabeele@escofier.com Website: ww.escofier.com

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M ay 2012