TPi November 2014

products & developments

Investment in ECM equipment to deliver customer benefits

enhancing our ability to provide value- added services, this is an investment that will help our customers to focus their efforts on what they do best.” Superior Tube’s products are used in a range of industries, from aerospace to power stations, and oil and gas extraction to medicine. The company’s manufacturing capabilities include seamless and welded tubes, straight lengths or coils, in stainless steel, nickel, titanium and zirconium.

future growth in its cutting operations. To complement the new machine, Superior Tube also purchased an added centrifuge filter system together with an improved electrochemical solution with an increased usable life. Bob Henry, Superior Tube’s president and CFO, commented, “This is an important investment for Superior Tube. ECM (electrochemical machining) is an essential technology for us and in order to deliver its full benefits to our customers – including enhanced product quality, reduced lead times and competitive pricing – we need to be operating with the most advanced equipment. By could not achieve the sensitivity our customers required,” said the engineering manager at Servomex, a UK manufacturer of gas sensors. “The shift to an electroform was a minor part of the improved performance. We really got our boost in sensitivity and noise reduction from the Laser Gold that lined the electroform.” From the infrared reflective coating on instruments aboard weather satellites, to the cooling plumbing on the James Webb Next Generation Space Telescope, Epner Technology is proud of being the sole supplier to NIST of the Infrared Standard Reference mirrors that are calibrated and sold worldwide. “Laser Gold is the trademark for an electroplating process that creates tightly packed gold atoms,” said David Epner, president. “The coating exceeds the reflectivity and hardness of an evaporated gold, and was originally developed for NASA some 30 years ago.”

Superior Tube Company, a manufacturer of small diameter precision tubing for safety critical applications, has invested in a new Everite Ultracut electrochemical tube cut-off machine for its plant in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, USA. The new machine offers versatility in terms of cut setting and has the ability to store a number of recipes for specific cut-to-length products, making the set-up process faster. In addition to improved throughput rates and cost reductions, the machine will ensure enhanced cut quality, including end squareness consistency, and increase the company’s capacity for A new process, combining a gold plating technique developed for the Space Program’s YAG laser pump cavities with the electroforming manufacturing technique, is now increasing the sensitivity of infrared gas analysers and sensors – products that have long used infrared light to detect CO, CO 2 and many other trace gases in the atmosphere. At the heart of many of these designs is an IR gas cell, sometimes called a light-pipe. The new process involves ‘growing’ the gas cell around a highly polished mandrel or tool. The first layer that is electroplated onto this tool is a proprietary ultra-high infrared reflective gold (0.98@800nm and 0.99@2 microns) achieved from a plating process known as Laser Gold. This is followed by a heavier layer of pure nickel plating, which gives structural strength to the gas cell. At this point, the mandrel is removed, leaving a stand-alone cylinder, lined with an efficient infrared reflective surface. This same technique, with slight modification, is also used to fabricate Nd:YAG laser pump chambers.

Superior Tube Co – USA info@superiortube.com www.superiortube.com

Gold coating helps gas ‘sniffers’ detect greenhouse gases

High Quality Products and Reasonable Price

Supplying:

Standard Flange Non-standard Flange Customized precision machining parts and assemblies Pipe Fittings

Materials: Carbon steel

Stainless steel Alloy steel Aluminum

Tel : (86) 311 86219861 Fax: (86) 311 86219891 E-mail: luhw@cnchida.com www. f langescn.com

Epner Technology – USA info@epner.com www.epner.com

“Our original design, a stainless tube with a gold plated interior,

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November 2014 Tube Products International