TPT July 2020

T E CHNOLOG Y

PLC controlled direct forming tube mill innovations from Forever Machinery DESIGNED, manufactured, installed and commissioned by Forever

Machinery in 2013, the advanced LW600x600x22 ERW tube mill, which is the world’s largest direct forming ERW tube mill, has proven to be a rewarding investment for Changshu Fengfan Green Building Co Ltd. The mill is capable of producing continuously square hollow sections (SHS) of up to 600 x 600mm and rectangular hollow sections (RHS) of up to 400 x 600mm with a thickness of up to 22mm. Forever Machinery has enhanced and optimised its direct forming technology and has amplified its advantages in a number of practical ways. Unlike traditional ‘direct forming’ methods, the enhanced direct forming technical development by Forever Machinery allows bending to take place at different locations along the lateral direction of the steel strip for each stand, evenly distributing the force exerted along the radius of the corner, effectively reducing stress concentration, practically eliminating the risks of cracks and minimising the ‘thinning’ phenomenon, which could take place at the corner of the SHS or RHS during the traditional direct forming process. By integrating thePLCcontrolled servo motor assisted roll adjustment system, the Forever Machinery designed direct forming mill is fully capable of producing a wide range of sizes and thicknesses of SHS and RHS using only one set of rolls and performing a complete roll adjustment within 30 minutes, and even under 15 minutes for certain configurations. The Forever Machinery designed LW600x600x22 direct forming ERW tube mill employs the PLC controlled direct forming process with the following characteristics: ability to make a

corners and will produce products with a finer surface finish and more consistent quality compared to the traditional ‘round to square’ forming method. An integrated gantry type stand is used for a reinforced structural strength, assuring stable and reliable operation when running at high speed producing heavy gauge products of high yield/ tensile strength. It also has low energy consumption compared to the traditional ‘round to square’ forming method. Due to the nature of the direct forming, bending only occurs at four corners of the SHS/ RHS, making it a more efficient forming process. Load applied on the equipment is significantly lower than that on a traditional ‘round to square’ forming mill, therefore implicating a reduced energy consumption and minimised wear and tear on the equipment.

complete roll adjustment for product change with the push of a button; bringing down labour intensity and improving the work health and safety conditions on site; it utilises only one set of rolls for SHS and RHS of all specified specifications; and the advanced mill significantly reduces the tooling cost compared to other SHS/RHS mills around the world. Coupled with integrated PLC controlled servo motor assisted roll adjustment system, no roll change/replacement is required for product change at any stage of the production process including forming, welding, sizing and straightening (using turks heads). Quick product size change is also possible: complete roll adjustment cycle within 30 minutes, greatly boosting the machine uptime, enabling the customer to expand their product range and vastly boost product capacity. By integrating the optimised direct forming technology, the customer is no longer troubled by issues with poor quality

Forever Machinery www.frv.cn www.pipemill.cn

Xiris software for weld cameras XIRIS’ latest version of WeldStudio™ software includes powerful new functions to support Xiris Weld Cameras in capturing and processing high-quality weld images. The pre-recording buffering feature captures the beginning of a weld easily with a pre-recording buffer that caches up to ten seconds of video. It also features three new advanced

edge detectors to help highlight subtle features in the welding environment.

Xiris www.xiris.com

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JULY 2020