TPi March 2020

Products & developments

Latest innovations for the manufacture of high quality copper tubing

This high speed ASMAG finishing line series is very interesting in commercial terms as the removal of the drawing unit reduces initial investment costs. In combination with improved tube quality this line is a real benefit for all copper tube producers. Several lines of this kind are in operation at well-established copper tube producers. The ASMAG Group is an innovative group of companies primarily active in development, design and manufacture of machinery for the steel and nonferrous metal industries. With manufacturing plants in Austria and Germany and subsidiaries in Italy, Russia and the USA, ASMAG Group is globally active and ranks among the leading providers in the industry. ASMAG GmbH www.asmag.at

into baskets for further processing. This results in dramatically lower floor space requirements compared to other mother tube production processes. The extruder is a compact unit and requires no special foundation. It can be deliv- ered pre-commissioned which allows a shorter time for installation and commis- sioning on site. Conventional finishing lines for copper tubes include a drawing section, require a re-cutting device and time-consuming operations for dimensional changes. The latest ASMAG finishing line series avoids all three of the above deficiencies and adds benefits. The high line speed of up to 250m/min in combination with the quick push button changeover for up to six high volume sizes drastically increases the productivity with the same space requirements. Due to the included special in-line cutting device combined with high and

For manufacturing copper tubing the mother tube production process is decisive in terms of quality and production costs. In most copper tube plants the mother tube production starts either from cast billets or from cast hollow shells. The latest development for mother tube production is the ROTEX process, which can be used for copper and copper alloy mother tubes. ROTEX is a continu- ous extrusion technology starting with cast hollow shells or extruded hollows. Even when using feedstock in short lengths of approximately one meter it is possible to produce extrusion packages of any length and coil weight due to ROTEX’s unique process. The process is also very flexible in terms of extrusion sizes as it allows a wide range of varying diameter and wall dimensions with short change-over times. This makes further processing and finishing of tubes even more effective. After extrusion the mother tube can be directly processed on spinner blocks. ROTEX can be used for new copper tube plants and also in existing production environments for balancing production or increasing the overall output. With ROTEX tubing can be produced from refined scrap copper or cathode material. This can be a huge benefit as it allows to use the material grade needed for the application of the finished tubes. In addition to phosphorus-deoxidized copper alloys like copper iron have shown good results. Whereas with conventional extrusion presses the package size is limited by the billet weight – with ROTEX there is no such limitation. Therefore ROTEX is also a solution to increase the coil weight in existing copper tube plants. It is possible to use ROTEX instead of or in addition to the cold pilger mill to gain flexibility. ROTEX is scalable and allows the user to spread capital investment cost over time as demand grows without com- promising cost efficiency. For ROTEX short pieces of feedstock can be used and after extrusion the tubing is coiled

constant speed no re-cutting is needed. In addition to an increased output this results in significant material savings and consequently in a higher yield. The system is used for finishing lines dedicated to straight lengths and pancake coils as well as for all-in-one finishing lines including level wound coils.

High quality copper tube production

27

www.read-tpi.com

March 2020 TUBE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL