TPT January 2016

Article

Schwarze-Robitec GmbH

Similarly, tight radii with such large tubes are usually only achieved with much slower and costlier warm bending processes or welding bends. Anyone wanting to produce with material efficiency will also want to avoid residual tube lengths. Machine expansions such as the tube residual length optimisation from Schwarze-Robitec function like “cost brakes”. An additional savings potential with regard to material is the dosing of lubricants. These counteract the high tribological loads on tool and work pieces, which occur during cold bending. With most lubricating methods the lubricants are added in large quantities into the tube to be bent. To remove lubricants from the finished bent tubes after bending, the tubes normally need

Tube cold bending machine CNC 220 HD MW from Schwarze-Robitec: Tubes with different nominal widths can be processed quickly with the stacked tooling, which can be seen quite clearly at the front

to undergo an elaborate cleaning, where further chemicals are used in the process. A considerably lower consumption is achieved with automatic lubricating systems. With the help of compressed air they simply moisten the bending mandrel surface and tube inner wall. Through this optimal dosage both the costs and the effort for the subsequent cleaning of tube and machine are considerably reduced. The micro-lubrication from Cologne’s bending specialist functions according to this principle: the lines for oil and compressed air run through the mandrel rod all the way to the mandrel. There, the oil is distributed by the compressed air. During the bending process it exits from the mandrel through small drilled holes. In this way the system combines a need-based lubrication with minimal lubricant consumption.

flanged tubes in shipbuilding and plant construction also causes additional processing steps in forming, for example the subsequent flanging of finished tube bends. A remedy is flanged tube facilities, which take the flange and sleeve positions before the bending process into consideration. In this manner tubes that are already flanged can be bent economically. The heavy-duty systems from Cologne’s bending specialist are designed for the forming of double-walled tubes and flanged tubes. These can be implemented in existing systems ready-to-install after bending. Another “time saver” is the marking facilities, which mark the positions on the tubes where welds or bypasses are to be carried out after bending. By this procedure, the facility takes the load off the operator, who now no longer has to conduct time-consuming calculations for subsequent determination of the corresponding points on the bent tube.

Reduced material input Tube runs in ships, as well as in offshore and chemical facilities, offer great potential for material savings because the long stretches of tube cause considerable material costs. The tube materials used in the industry sector are also very high quality and need to be installed efficiently. One option is small bending radii. They optimise tube runs enormously in the case of tight space conditions and result in less material input. The CNC 320 HD from Schwarze-Robitec, for example, produces extremely small bending radii of 1.5 x tube diameter even for large, very thin-walled tubes with a diameter of up to 323.9mm.

The CNC 320 HD from Schwarze-Robitec produces extremely small bending radii of 1.5 x tube diameter, even for very large, thin-walled tubes with a diameter of up to 323.9mm

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J anuary 2016