TPT September 2013

Tube mi l ls and rol l forming

WH-350 reshaping stands YODER Manufacturing of Cleveland, Ohio, a member of the Formtek Group, has recently been contracted to refurbish and upgrade an existing WH-350 tube mill to produce structural shapes (HSS). Formtek has designed a new style reshaping stand that enables the operator to adjust the inboard, or drive side, side cluster from the operator side of the mill, which eliminates the need for the operator to enter a dangerous area of the tube mill for simple adjustments. The reshaping stand has single point top shaft adjustment and individual side cluster adjustment to allow the operator to fine tune the setup to get the desired shape. In most cases, the reshaping portion of the sizing or calibration machine consists of two or three reshaping stands coupled after two or three “round” drive stands. This configuration yields enough distance to properly “move” material to minimise marking from tooling while providing the proper amount of drive power necessary for reshaping wall thicknesses up to 0.25" (6.4mm). The system will be capable of reshaping up to 4" (101.6mm) square

or up to 2" x 6" (50.8 x 152.4mm) rectangles. Formtek is a group of long-established companies, each with a well-known name and a history of providing innovative, reliable equipment to the metal forming and metal processing industries. As a single source provider, Formtek continues to supply its customers with the highest quality equipment, parts and service available in the industries it serves.

Formtek – USA Website www.formtekgroup.com

Casting thin-walled Cu-DHP tubes UPCAST upward continuous casting technology is best known for the production of Cu-OF rod used within the wire and cable industry. With the advent of Upcast SGTube, the technology has been applied to the casting of thin- walled Cu-DHP tubes. Cast tubes with a fine grain structure come in heavy coils straight from the casting line ready for drawing. into various final tube products. Upcast states that the main advantage gained when taking the Cast&Draw production route is the savings in overall costs due to the cast tube being close to final tube product sizes. were brought online earlier this year. Hybridity offers a solution for companies with a diverse product range but low product-specific volumes. Next year will see the first delivery of a greenfield Cast&Draw plant.

Cast&Draw is currently being used in the production of sanitary and certain ACR tubing, with a gradual shift to more demanding products. Adaption of the Cast&Draw concept to copper alloys is also near, one example being Cu-Ni tubes for seawater applications.

In more traditional production methods, several costly steps are required to reach the same point. A Cast&Draw production line also requires less space than conventional equipment. Output from a single Cast&Draw unit is up to 12,000tpa. The first tube mill with its production based onCast&Drawhas been operating for more than two years. Two follow-on SGTube lines, which are ‘hybrid’ units capable of producing both rod and tube,

The baseline Upcast technology is characterised by low lifecycle costs, easy variation of output, upgradability and small environmental footprint. SGTube brings all these benefits to the disposal of copper tube manufacturers, while at the same time replacing many costly production stages in existing tube mills. Casting of copper tubes has been possible with the Upcast system from the very start. However, if the cast grain structure is too coarse the tube cannot be successfully drawn, which limits its use to the manufacture of tube fittings. A few years ago, Upcast embarked on an R&D project to reduce the size of the cast grains, in order to overcome this restriction. The result was the SGTube technology. To exploit the full potential of SGTube, Upcast has joined forces with Asmag GmbH to develop a new concept called Cast&Draw, for cost-efficient production of copper tubes. The ‘cast’ portion consists of the SGTube process while the ‘Draw’ part includes straight drawing and intermediate annealing equipment. The tube produced is a semi-product that can then be further processed with standard spinner blocks and finishing equipment

Upcast Oy – Finland Fax: +358 207 577 401 Email: sales@upcast.com Website: www.upcast.com

Upcast SGTube casting technology

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S eptember 2013