TPT January 2009

S oftware for D esign, P roduction & M anagement

S oftware for tube and pipe manufacture is an exacting tool for exacting people, never more so than when it is employed in the service of management. This is the area of rapid advances and importunate new requirements, many of them imposed from some distance beyond the perimeter of the plant. The watchword of the hour is energy conservation. To tube

 Rapid analysis and simulation of the entire hydroforming process (see page 96)

makers, the wise use of energy is not an ideal but standard operating practice to which the right software makes an invaluable contribution.

An online software tool introduced in November provides a case in point. It offers an overview of the plant’s major energy-consuming systems and a cost analysis of energy purchases. It enables plant personnel to monitor energy use minute-to-minute, and to quickly identify opportunities for savings. It includes an energy intensity spreadsheet and a carbon footprint calculator. It has a trouble-shooting feature that remedies minor user errors.

For good measure, this sophisticated software also confers citizenship of a globalized world: it provides Chinese language support for every program. Nothing has been left out of this software except what is unnecessary, and that has been ruthlessly excluded. In tube and pipe manufacture, energy conservation is a serious concern and a practical necessity. Fortunately, software development has proceeded in parallel with that necessity; and its products are as advanced as the industry they have been created to serve.

 Roni3D software aids the user in visualizing tube and pipe production (see page 90)

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J anuary 2009

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