Increase Yield for tube and pipe production

TORONTO - Feb. 2, 2015 - PRLog -- The need to reduce part weight, especially in the automotive sector, is driving the increased use of higher-strength, thinner-gauge material. These materials are more challenging to form and weld than traditional materials.  Yield is driven by heat input, parallel edges and minimal edge misalignment.  These are challenges for tube and pipe producers when the process is inefficient to begin with.

Meanwhile, forming the tube or pipe round these days is more challenging as many mills operate with fewer fin and sizing passes. It’s all the more difficult because over the years line speeds have increased as explained in the following real world example:

The image within is a real-time capture from a 20mm OD tube. One can see the squeeze out on the right hand side, but no squeeze out on the left.  The producer wasn’t sure of the origin of this disturbance.   We suggested that they check if their material was riding high on one side and if they were putting too much pressure.  The conclusion was correct and they made adjustments to their fin passes.   This example  illustrates the power of bringing this kind of information forward, that they were not aware of.

The Solution:

Radian is a weld and process monitoring system that provides real time visualization of the weld profile as well as detection of potentially weak welds.  Weld integrity is of upmost important to tube and pipe producers.

Monitored against a recipe, Radian captures these key parametric datasets:

Weld features:

·         Offset, weld upset, mismatch

·         Weld bead height, weld  bead width

·         Edge angle of one side wall relative to the other at the weld point

·         Roll angle ( deviation from a known reference )

If a client chooses to incorporate the process side, Radian can monitor up to 5 analog inputs.  Examples of these include:

·         Volts

·         Amps

·         Gas

·         Temperature

·         Line Speed

·         Gauge thickness

These parameters are tied to a set of control limits and robust IO for operator alerts, mill integration and historian databases and charting.

To view additional detail and video about this system follow this link:

http://www.invisuale.com/solutions/tube-and-pipe-technolo...