TPT May 2007

Technology Update

Pipe welds made bright and shiny

Highly productive and fully automatic short tube manufacturing

Huntingdon Fusion Techniques Ltd, UK, provides the cost- efficient technology to keep welds clean while welding. This technology can be used in cases where piping or pipelines are fabricated from stainless steels, reactive alloys, nickel alloys, nimonics and titanium. By adding a lightweight component called a ‘Trailing Shield’ to a TIG/ GTAW welding torch

The production of short tubes with high productivity, flexibility and quality is the focus of weil engineering GmbH, Germany. The company has perfected the design and construction of rollforming and welding machines to produce finished tubes from blanks. A wide variety of laser, TIG or plasma weld sources can be applied for welding. The WE product range covers tube dimensions from 25mm to 1,000mm in diameter, up to 2,000mm in length and 0.2-3mm in wall thickness. The WE roll forming machines are NC controlled to allow a high shape flexibility. The welding machines incorporate a fully automatic, flexible and accurate clamping system for high product quality and constant repeatability. Automation components are available for all machines allowing a lean production. Weil engineering GmbH have recently launched their latest development, branded the Ecomaster, a manufacturing cell combining rollforming and welding into one compact unit. The scope of operation for the Ecomaster covers diameters from 80-200mm, tube lengths from 80-500mm and wall thickness from 0.8 to 2mm. A special feature of the Ecomaster is the multiroller rollforming unit for tube shaping, which allows production of different diameters without any part change. For any change of diameter, all that is required is the connection of a suitable tool into the welding unit and adjustment of the blank feeding into the rollforming unit. Changeover time for diameter change is only about 18 minutes, and only 5 minutes for the change of tube length. Upon request, a range of welding sources can be offered, including laser. With the basic model, blanks are fed manually onto the infeed table, which allows an efficient entry into the automated short tube manufacture. With the option of an additional destacker the automation of blank feeding is possible; when feeding from one destacking position, the second destacking position can be refilled. weil engineering GmbH – Germany Fax : +49 7631 1809 49 Email : info@weil-engineering.de Website : www.weileng.com

› Huntingdon’s Trailing Shields are used to keep welds clean

Indian piping supplies Shripal Metal Ltd, India, supplies piping material and other ferrous and non-ferrous construction materials to industries including petrochemicals, fertilisers, refineries, oil and engineering. The company has undertaken a substantial quality assurance initiative, and is a pioneer in the implementation of the bar coding system on material to provide accurate tracking. The company has actively participated in various national and international exhibitions, including wire & Tube Düsseldorf 2006 in Germany, and Chemcon-Summit 07 – India.

the weld stays under a protective Argon Gas shroud, while the hot, welded joint is cooling. This prevents the heated metal from oxidizing on contact with air. Trailing Shields are available for any diameter of pipe. Replaceable silicon rubber seals are used on the sides of the Trailing Shields to prevent the protective argon gas from escaping. Each Trailing Shield is delivered with variable diameter connector so that it can fit any size of TIG/GTAW/PAW welding torch whether for manual or mechanised welding. Huntingdon Fusion Techniques Ltd – UK Fax : +44 1554 836837 Emai l: hft@huntingdonfusion.com Website : www.huntingdonfusion.com

Shripal Metal Ltd – India Fax : +91 22 2242 8765

Email : shripalm@bom2.vsnl.net.in Website : www.shripalmetals.com

Automatic feed table for collaring machine T-Drill, the manufacturer and supplier of tube processing and chipless tube cutting machines, has made a number of improvements and additions to its model S-54 collaring machine. For branching of manifolds, T-Drill has introduced a new automatic feed table (AFT) that can store up to 99 different branching specifications. It has a positioning efficiency comparable to typical CNC controlled configurations. The new AFT is also equipped with a universal clamping system that reduces tooling costs and set-up times. Typical uses for the new S-54 with AFT include air-conditioning, floor heating and solar panel manifold applications. The T-Drill collaring method improves the quality of tube joints, and makes brazing operations easy to carry out, since the collar fixes the branch tube in the correct position, allowing brazing without other fixtures. T-Drill Oy – Finland Fax : +358 6 4753 300 • Email : sales@t-drill.fi • Website : www.t-drill.fi T-Drill Industries Inc – USA Fax : +1 770 925 3912 • Email : t-drill@t-drill.com • Website : www.t-drill.com

36

M ay /J une 2007