TPT September 2020

T E CHNOLOG Y

transfluid’s tube bending machines offer tailored production performance

that were not the same, without pre-cutting the tubes. The automated cell included a loading magazine for long tubes, a device for the orientation of the weld seam, abendingmachine with five bending levels and capable of cutting the finished component,

THE “client is king” according to engi- neering company transfluid, based in Schmallenberg, Germany. Customers often request tube processing machines with specifications that are particularly challenging or unusual. And every time, the engineers at transfluid work hard to find the best possible solution. A good example is a real project transfluid has worked on, requiring the production of a stainless-steel manifold with a very complex shape, which needed complicated bending, forming and calibration of the ends. This was the specific challenge: to only manufacture the tubes needed for one manifold, so that the client could take four or six pieces to always get one manifold in the welding process, even for large-scale production. The result: when a single tube fails in the automated welding unit it can be further processed. The cell gets a signal and produces one extra, single tube. The individual requirements of the customer also included the production of a sequence of at least four tubes

After the deburring a robot takes the component to a combination forming machine for further processing on the opposite tube end. A Robot moves the tube in compound clamps to the combi- nation machine for forming, calibration, trimming in a chipless orbital method and an axial forming an asymmetric geometry in three steps, with very tight tolerances and complex results. The asymmetrical and challenging forming is not a problem for the expert engineers at transfluid. Because the forming of the tube ends depends on the tube processing, the forming is done with a so-called “additional clamping technique”, to reduce the number of tools. At this point a robot will place the four different components in separate containers. A separate unit will manufacture an EGR tube in parallel with complex 28x1 bend geometries. A flange with a 45mm diameter has to be formed on this tube. During this process the longitudinal seam should not be damaged, and the flare should not split. To complete this delicate step transfluid puts into operation their established rolling technique. With this technique it is possible to form tubes that have already been bent and have a very short clamping section. transfluid is a valued partner all over the world for the production of tube bending and tube processing machines. transfluid have been developing its customer-focused technologies for tube processing since 1988 and offers tailor- made solutions for the construction of plants and machines, for the automotive, energy and shipbuilding sectors and the manufacturing of medical equipment.

when the bending process is complete. In addition to this, the components were calibrated both internally and externally at the same time with a finger expansion. The final complex bending shape was put in an axial combination machine at the end to finalise the end forming of the opposite end. This machine can perform the final exact cut in an orbital and chipless way. This makes it possible to reshape the tube axially with one clamping process. The loading magazine can take a whole bundle of tubes in one go. The tubes are then separated by using eddy current seam detection to recognise

the welding seam. The welding seam is positioned and the tube is fed to the bending machine with a linear handling system. As these components are very compact, it is possible to produce up to 20 units from one tube. There are up to four bending levels plus one cutting level available to bend the individual components. After the bending part of the process, the tube is cut in a controlled manner with long-lasting carbide blades. Th3 result is a clean cut and a component with a perfectly round tube end. A robot takes the tube and calibrates it. This is necessary because the cut on the tube is finally very close to the bend. With this last step the processing of side on the component is complete and it is placed in the deburring device to obtain a smooth cut.

transfluid believes that the “ customer is king ” when it comes to designing specific machines

transfluid www.transfluid.net

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SEPTEMBER 2020