TPT July 2015

Straightening technology and equipment

Tube straightening machine from Ravni

At one time straightening was a simple bending operation with the addition of some readily calibrated “overkill” to compensate for springback. The challenge of longer lengths, played off a spool, was met by running the tube through a series of precision rollers. Twists even of the spaghetti variety quickly yielded to a couple of V-blocks and a judiciously placed manual press. But the tubing industry did not linger very

long in its early stage, and straightening was key to progress into the era of nasogastric tubes, cathode ray tubes, and nylon stuffing tubes. It continues to be pivotal today, in the hands of the successors to the pioneers of straightening technology and equipment. A representative selection of their products and services will be found in the pages of this section of Tube & Pipe Technology.