TPT May 2015

Technology News

Testing high quality tube for automotive manufacturers

AS the automotive industry continues to raise the bar for quality, tube manufacturers are turning to technologically advanced testing equipment. To meet this demand, Magnetic Analysis Corp (MAC) has supplied Tube Products of India, a precision steel tube manufacturer, with a comprehensive Multi-Test system for its new mill in Thiruthani, India. The recently commissioned plant manufactures large diameter, high wall, cold drawn and welded tubes, primarily for the hydraulic cylinder tubing market. The Multi-Test system incorporates both ultrasonic and eddy current inspection technologies, to ensure 100 per cent coverage and accurate detection of ID, OD and internal longitudinal and transverse defects as well as areas of reduced wall thickness. Taking advantage of the test characteristics of both ultrasonic and eddy current technologies provides a more accurate inspection result. The system includes MAC’s Echomac ® FD-5 ultrasonic instrumentation with 16 channels, a 180mm ultrasonic rotary,

The Echomac ultrasonic rotary tester is part of the MAC Multi-Test system

Additional components in the system include automated controls and inspec- tion reports to confirm indicated defect areas and their positions; five dual pinch- es that help to accurately guide, centre and transfer the tube through the tests at 60m/min; and a water circulation system to provide coupling for the ultrasonic test.

and a MultiMac ® eddy current tester. The ultrasonic inspection scans 100 per cent of the tube surface using eight transducers for longitudinal defect detection and eight for transverse. Four additional transducers provide the wall thickness measurement. The eddy current encircling coil test is suited to finding short defects that can sometimes be missed by ultrasonic technology. The result is a test that gives comprehensive defect detection.

Magnetic Analysis Corp – USA Email: info@mac-ndt.com Website: www.mac-ndt.com

Cutting, de-burring and drilling BEWO Cutting Systems, a supplier of automating cutting lines for tubes, has installed a combination of machines, together with a drilling machine manufacturer from Germany. Bewo and the drilling machine manufacturer provided the machines for a German company that supplies products to the agricultural sector. The machine combination will be used for processing profiles with a high tensile strength.

together at high speed and deliver a high output. The Bewo cutting machine processes input with different lengths, so a minimum of rest pieces remain. After the profiles have been cut, they pass the two Bewo machines for de-burring, and then move to the drilling machines. Finally, the profiles are automatically transferred to a cleaning machine, where the dirt and chips are removed. The Bewo cutting lines have short changeover times – an important aspect for the customer, which processes many different kinds of profiles. Because all settings are made automatically, changing over a Bewo cutting line takes only one minute. The Bewo cutting machine replaces four semi-manual cutting machines.

The combination consists of a Bewo automatic circular cutting machine, coupled to two Bewo de-burring machines and two drilling machines.

The cutting machine, de-burring machines and drilling machines work

Bewo Cutting Systems BV – Netherlands

Email: info@bewo.nl Website: www.bewo.nl

Bewo automatic cutting line

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M ay 2015