TPT September 2015

Technology News

X-ray technology ensures quality ACCORDING to a recent automobile study, around 900 million passenger cars are currently on the road. Forecasts predict that in the emerging markets the number of cars will increase significantly in the coming years. In 2035, the worldwide number will, it is estimated, have risen to 1.7 billion, which is a growth of one car per second. Typically, six to ten metres of rubber hoses are installed in each car. Altogether, this corresponds to around 5.4 billion metres of installed automobile hoses in 2014. In order to ensure the perfect functioning of this hose network in cars, quality control of rubber hoses during production is gaining in importance. Furthermore, cost saving during production is becoming an increasingly important aspect. (inner rubber). This is often extruded onto a mandrel, which is pressed out after the production of the hose, by means of compressed air or water. For multi-layer hoses, a textile reinforcement is additionally applied on this inner layer for reinforcement and protection. In the next step, the outer layer (outer rubber) is extruded. For certain applications, such as turbocharger hoses, several inner layers and reinforcements are applied. For certain types of hoses, silicon is used as inner layer onto which the reinforcement is applied. This is followed by a layer of rubber, another reinforcement and more rubber as outer layer. Rubber hoses in conformity with approved specifications are necessary for smooth processing. A demanding quality control also increases material savings.

The requirements for quality control of rubber hoses have increased continuously over recent years. In the past, it was sufficient to produce hoses as a seamless, open connection. Further parameters, like eccentricity values, were not taken into consideration. Today, the requirements for rubber hoses are a lot higher and more complex, especially in regards to function and safety, specifically for hydraulic and turbocharger hoses. The automotive industry, for example, uses high quality fuel hoses in order to avoid evaporation of fuel, as this can have negative effects on the environment. Furthermore, engines are becoming increasingly powerful with a significantly

X-ray technology assures the quality of rubber hoses during production

Today a number of different technologies are used for quality control during the production of rubber hoses, for example laser for the measurement of the diameter or X-ray technology for determining concentricity. Common technologies like ultrasound are only suitable to a limited extent. The signals of the single layers in the rubber hose are not clearly transmitted and rubber absorbs the majority of the sound.

higher acceleration behaviour. The high engine power also requires high braking power and thus, a high quality brake hose which can withstand the enormous brake pressure and guarantee permanent road safety. These examples show that rubber hoses in conformity with approved specifications are vital for their precise function and processing. Rubber hoses produced in extrusion lines can have one, three or five layers, depending on application and strain. The first extruder creates the inner layer

Sikora AG – Germany Email: sales@sikora.net Website: www.sikora.net

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S eptember 2015