Efficient shipbuilding: new tool-independent pipe forming

transfluid technology: forming pipes of up to 325 mm diameter for economical shipbuilding

Complex requirements that place increasing demands on efficiency are mission-critical challenges for tube forming applications too. This is particularly true for shipbuilding. The high investment in the tooling needed for forming machines has been an unnecessary cost driver – until now. A corresponding tool had to be available for every possible combination of tube geometry and diameter. The engineers at transfluid already recognized this back in 2011. At that time they developed an efficient solution for the tool-independent forming of tube ends with the first CNC rotary pipe forming machine. With a second, new process the company is now marking a further milestone in forming – without the tooling complexity.

A flaring machine that does not require special tool inserts
“We have managed to develop a flaring machine that has a positively guided cone. The machine only requires aclamp for flanging jobs”, is how Gerd Nöker, Managing Director of transfluid, summarizes the technical innovation. Effective attention to detail allowed the engineers to develop the technology to reach a commercially viable level. This means that the flaring cone no longer corresponds with the forming geometry, as with conventional systems. The benefits include a lower investment in – and stock of – tooling, minimum setup times and a tube manufacturing process optimized to the cycle-time; because the shape is sometimes achieved in two forming stages – or the flange is fitted to the tube end by welding.

Freely swinging for a wide range of options
Because the flaring cone is located on a rotating shaft it is relatively difficult to control. This is why the cone is allowed to swing freely and only the axial feed is used as a “control medium”. This makes the construction of the whole tube foming machine simple and robust, and all forming options remain open during the forming process itself. The first machine, which was recently delivered, is capable of flanging tubes of 42.4 to 325 mm. The transitional radius between the tube and flange can be freely selected and the radius can be very angular or well rounded. Special, cost-intensive tooling has now become a thing of the past.

More information: http://www.tube-processing-machines.com/machines.php

transfluid Maschinenbau GmbH – the solution for tubes

Since 1988 transfluid continually improved technologies in tube processing to meet customers’ demands, offering optimum, tailor-made solutions in machine and plant construction, that are used in the automobile, ship building and furniture industries as well as the construction of railings and conveyor technology. The Schmallenberg-based company has become a global brand with service offices in Europe and Asia.

transfluid’s product portfolio offers perfect solutions in five different machine categories, that meet all the requirements in tube processing. t bend includes semi- and fully-automatic tube bending machines as well as large-diameter tube bending machines.. t form represents high-quality axial, rolling and combined tube forming machines. Automation systems with sophisticated concepts for bending and forming technology belong to the t motion category. With t cut, transfluid offers tube cutting machines in different system variants und t clean is transfluid’s range of tube cleaning machines for guaranteed cleanliness of work pieces and pipes.

www.tube-processing-machines.com
transfluid at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/transfluid

transfluid
Maschinenbau GmbH
Stefanie Flaeper
Hünegräben 20-22
57392 Schmallenberg
Germany
Tel.: +49 2972 97 15 - 0
Fax: +49 2972 97 15 - 11
info@transfluid.de
www.tube-processing-machines.com

This release was published on openPR.