TPT March 2007

Industry News

More expansion for Van Leeuwen Wheeler

Specialist distributor of tube, pipe and bar, Van Leeuwen Wheeler has opened a new sales office at its Middlesbrough, UK warehouse. Orders for the northeast of England were previously handled by the

doubling of its cutting capacity. Last year, the company also created a dedicated facility for the fluid power industry, with the addition of two new cutting machines

fi Van Leeuwen Wheeler’s Middlesbrough warehouse, where expansion of business has led to a new sales office being opened for customers in the North East of England

company’s Bury sales office, but substantial growth has prompted the creation of an additional office specifically serving customers in the region. development follows on from the major 2006 investment programme in Middlesbrough, which saw the reorganisation of its 100,000ft 2 warehousing space and This

Design facility opened at Tube Investments of India

Tube Investments of India Ltd (TII) has established a new engineering design centre in Chennai, to help progress its new product developments. The design centre will use state-of-the-art software to simulate tubular forming, hydroforming, expansion and extrusion operations. The company designs automotive components using Catia and SolidWorks, with 3D models subsequently analyzed for stress and strain under static and dynamic loading conditions. Alternate designs can be offered in order to save weight and reduce the number of parts while retaining end-performance. These finite element models work on packages including Ansys, LS-Dyna, and Hyperform.

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The design centre has been established to support new products such as the company’s formable and weldable high strength steel tubing. This tubing, which offers strength levels from 600- 1200Mpa, can be used to manufacture high strength tubular components including axles, stabilizer bars and steering linkages for the auto sector.

The design centre has been established to support new products such as high strength steel tubing

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This product is the result of the company’s special manufacturing facility for value added lightweight components, established with the aim of weight and cost reduction for auto customers. Such components can replace solid bars, forgings/castings and alloy steels, delivering comparable performance levels. All TPI tube mills are virtually simulated using Copra FEA tube manufacturing simulation software, to assist in roll design optimization. The facilities are also fully equipped for prototype testing under torsion, impact, axial and bending fatigue. The failure analysis laboratory is also equipped with a Scanning Electron Microscope to analyze endurance failures.

Tube Products of India – India Fax : +91 44 2638 3110 Email : tubesindia@tii.murugappa.com Website : www.tubeindia.com

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