Trepanning Centres Produce Cost-Effective Tubes

Mollart's TPA trepanning centres have the ability to machine bores between 80-300mm diameter by up to 1.2m deep from solid to create a section of tube from an up to 600mm diameter bar or billet. According to the company, an advantage of the TPA 'big bore' process, apart from rigidity and speed of penetration of the tool head, is that the core of the material is salvaged for further use and not lost in swarf.

The TPA range of 600 and 1200 trepanning centres are said to provide a cost-effective method of tube production that would normally involve rolling and seam welding or tube drilled and bored from solid material. 'Trepanning becomes the most viable process on difficult to machine materials, which can become very unpractical to roll,' said Ian Petit, sales director. The TPA machines use a hollow end-mill-style rotating cutter head, with the larger TPA-1200 being powered by a 45kW motor via three-speed gearbox.

The material to be processed is held stationary in a fixed hydraulic chuck and is supported using a steady on the bed. The tool head has a relatively narrow cutter width to produce a kerf of just 10mm through a series of standard ISO insert cartridges equispaced on its inner and outer diameters.

On a 250mm diameter cutter, for example, up to eight cartridges would be utilised for balanced cutting with coolant fed from two high-flow pumps, each having a 300 litre/min capacity in order to clear swarf and maximise the penetration rate without degrading the life of the tooling. Mollart Engineering is planning to launch its TPA range of trepanning centres at the IMTS exhibition in Chicago.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What is Class I Division 2?

FUSE SIZING CONSIDERATIONS FOR HIGHER EFFICIENCY MOTORS

7/8 16UN Connectors that Provide 600 Volts and 15 Amps