TPT November 2017

I NDUS T RY

First spiral pipe produced at Schuler plant EXPERTS predict that in North America alone over 10,000km of new pipeline will be laid per year by 2020. Most of that will be spiral pipes.

the pipe plant also includes various pieces of equipment for inspecting the large-diameter pipes in accordance with API 5L standards. Ultrasonics, X-rays and water pressure stands are used. The production capacity of Tuberías Procarsa will be increased by 200,000 tons per year thanks to the Schuler system. Schuler is an international company, designing and producing tube forming technology. It offers presses, automation solutions, tools, process expertise and service for the entire metalworking industry and lightweight automobile construction. Customers include automobile manu- facturers and automotive suppliers as well as companies from the forging, household appliance, packaging, en- ergy and electronics industries. Schuler is also a designer and producer of coin minting presses, and implements system solutions for the aerospace, rail transport and large- dimension pipe manufacturing sectors. After recently acquiring toolmaker AWEBA and the majority stake of Chinese press manufacturer Yadon, Schuler is present in 40 countries with around 6,600 employees.

diameter of 508 to 2,235mm (20–88") and a length of 12 to 24.4m. The raw material up to 25.4mm-thick sheet metal band made of high-quality steel (up to X100) comes on a hot rolled coil (HRC). The spiral mill forms the diameter and welds the spiral pipe within the first step by tack welding. In a further process the final pipes will be welded by several final welding stands with a submerged arc welding process. An innovation from Schuler is the integrated coil preparation stand. It ensures short changeover times, high occupational safety and an exact 90°

Tuberías Procarsa, one of the leading manufacturers of steel pipe in Latin America, is now fully equipped to cater for this trend. The company, with headquarters in Monclova, Mexico, has put a spiral pipe plant from Schuler into operation and recently used it to produce large-diameter pipes for the first time. The offline spiral pipe plant can produce large-diameter pipes with a

cut of the beginning of the band. A crane transfer is no longer necessary. All relevant work steps on the spiral mill are automated: settings are no lon- ger made manually; instead, setting is performed directly on the well-organised control panel and implemented by servo motors. This results in an energy saving of up to 30 per cent and short changeover times. At a length of 285m,

Tuberías Procarsa has put a spiral pipe welding system from Schuler into operation and used it to produce large-diameter pipe

Schuler AG – Germany Website: www.schulergroup.com Integrating robots into the CNC machine

easily deployed by companies of all sizes. In addition, the commitment to open engineering by both companies is mirrored by the openness of the Sinumerik system, which allows the implementation of customised features even at a level of high application complexity.

control can be used as a stand-alone robot controller without the need for external or embedded robot controllers. Visitors to EMO 2017 had the opportunity to witness how the integrated Comau robot is easily operated from the Sinumerik. Applications including additive manufacturing, tape laying, fibre placement, machining with robots and non-destructive testing can now be

COMAU has joined forces with Siemens to meet growing interest in Industry 4.0 digitalisation solutions. Taking advantage of Comau’s wide range of robot arms and Siemens’ smart solutions for handling and processing with robots, the companies have developed a dedicated portfolio for the full integration of Comau robotic arms into the Siemens Sinumerik system. Through this technology, the Sinumerik

Comau SpA – Italy Website: www.comau.com

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NOVEMBER 2017