TPT September 2021

AR T I C L E

FD Machinery

Advantages and disadvantages So, compared with other ways of changeover, what are the advantages of RRC tube mill? First, look at the conventional ways used to change product specifications. Everyone knows the conventional mill, so I will not talk about it too much here. Other than the conventional way, there are two other ways to complete the task. One is to replace the whole stands together with the bottom plate, the so-called rafter or boat rafter mill. In addition to the high cost and large floor space, this method also requires someone to change the rollers offline. It saves no effort and no labour, only time, unless the customer has a set of rafter stands of each size. In 2019, FD supplied exactly this type of rafter equipment to a Chinese company for laser welding with a stainless steel pipe mill. It did manage to achieve no debugging, no scrap, no roll changes, and the downtime for changing size was only 10-30 minutes. However, due to the high cost, not every customer can accept it. Flexible forming concepts The second way is using various famous flexible forming concepts, such as Cage and FFX forming. In addition to the complicated structure and high cost, this type of equipment has three problems that are often overlooked. First, the complicated design, which is different from the Robotic Roll Changer, which is outside the tube mill, and the tube mill can run without it. The complex structure of the flexible forming mill has been integrated with the tube mill. Once a failure occurs, the tube mill will stop production. Second, the performance of the flexible mill without changing rolls is only reflected in the break down section. Fin pass and sizing section tooling still need to be changed. Therefore, it will still face the problems faced by a conventional mill. Third, the product variety of a flexible forming mill is restricted by its structure, resulting in the problem that many products that can be produced by a conventional tube mill, cannot now be produced. Manual change function As an RRC tube mill maintains all the features of a conventional tube mill, it can produce all of the products that a conventional mill can make. And it is very important that even if the robot fails, the manual roll change is still functional. The Robotic Roll Changer tube mill has been in constant development for more than 12 years. Now the models are complete and very successful. The existing equipment can also be modified and upgraded. Many patents protect the interests of FD and its customers. It is expected to become the first choice for most tube and pipe manufacturers in the future.

To completely get rid of the troubles caused by changeover, FD supplied a US customer with a 127x5mm Robotic Roll Changer tube mill last ye r, which contains the automatic tooling rack library, equipped with eight tooling racks, which can store eight sets of commonly used tooling. When you want to complete a changeover, the user can input the next product size on the screen, and the equipment will automatically take out the corresponding tooling rack from the library and place it on the roll changer. It will also remove the tooling rack and put it back into the tooling rack library. If the onsite space permits, the number of tooling racks can be added.

Shandong Province Sifang Technical Development Group

Ø127x5mm RRC tube mill in USA

Linear tooling racks library

The tooling racks library has two forms: vertical arrangement and matrix arrangement. These store all horizontal rolls (small and medium-sized mill) or portion of horizontal rolls (large- scale mill). There is an empty tooling rack that is specially used to store tooling of infrequent use. The tooling on this tooling rack needs to be replaced manually. Robotic ver tical roll changer On the Robotic Roll Changer, sometimes it can also be equipped with a robotic vertical roll changer and a Robotic Turks Head roll changer. These robots have automatic tooling setup functions. As an option, the robotic roll changer also has automatic cleaning and oiling functions. In any case, the roll changing robot is something separate from the mill. When they are parked in the parking position, the mill immediately returns to normal mill status. Operation and maintenance are no different from general equipment. The RRC tube mill´s manual quick roll change and quick roll setup function are also labour-saving and performing quickly. The downtime is about same as the Robot. You may have seen the working process of the robot at an exhibition or on the FD website. If you lift the upper roller and then pull out the outer stand, then remove the roller and place it on the tooling rack you can then remove the roller from the tooling rack. After this the user can align the keyway, place the roller on the horizontal shaft, and put the outer stand back. All these tasks are performed in one go and completed automatically.

FD Machinery – China fd@fdmachinery.com www.fdmachinery.com

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SEPTEMBER 2021