aspects of tube and pipe manufacturing processes_ meter to nanometer diameter

1、Journal of Materials Processing Technology 179 (2006) 5–10Aspects of tube and pipe manufacturing processes: Meter to nanometer diameterM.S.J. Hashmi ?School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Dublin City Univer

2、sity, Dublin-9, IrelandAbstractThe use of tubes and pipes has a long history in different industrial applications. New methods for manufacturing tubes and pipes are developing and improvement of the existing manufacturin

3、g methods is continuing. Broadly speaking, the manufacturing methods of metal tubes and pipes can be divided as seamless and welded. Tubes and pipes manufactured through different routes have their specific advantages an

4、d disadvantages. Depending on the application requirements, tubes and pipes are manufactured in different sizes and shapes. The outside diameter of tubes and pipes could be several meters to even few nanometers. The tube

5、 and pipe industries face many challenges to produce high quality tubing in a cost effective and productive way in today’s marketplace. Some of these challenges are requests for tube products in a wider variety of shapes

6、 and sizes by the end users, applications that require special materials, and demand for improved product quality from manufacturer. In this paper, different aspects of manufacturing, processing, design, utilization, qua

7、lity control, handling, cost and safety in tube and pipe production are briefly reviewed to offer a general idea relating to these issues. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Keywords: Tube; Pipe; Seamless; Wel

8、ded; Manufacturing; Nanotube; Finite element1. IntroductionTubes refer to any shape of hollow material of uniform wall thickness and defined by the outside diameter and wall thickness dimensions. On the other hand, a pip

9、e is one type of tube with the specific circular shape. Tubes can be of different shapes in cross-section like square, rectangular, oval, circular, conical or any special shape (e.g., hexagonal). In general, tubes and pi

10、pes refer to hollow sections with smaller and larger outer diame- ter, respectively. The outer diameter of tubes and pipes could be as large as several meters and as small as few nanometers. In today’s technology tubes a

11、nd pipes play an important role in manyapplicationsprimarilyforconveyingoffluidsandaremade of diverse materials and dimensions according to the purpose for which they are intended, metal pipes being of the greatest conse

12、- quence. Tubes and pipes have also found their way as structural elements in buildings, bridges, and automotive and aerospace industries. Modern materials for constructing tubes and pipes are principally divided into me

13、tallic and non-metallic. Metallic materials can also be divided as ferrous (e.g., cast iron, wrought iron and steel) and non-ferrous (e.g., copper, aluminum, brass,? Fax: +353 1 704 5345. E-mail address: hashmis@dcu.ie.l

14、ead or alloys of copper, aluminum, titanium and magnesium). Whereas non-metallic materials include plastic, concrete, clay, wood, glass, paper and many others. The tube and pipe industry faces many challenges in today’s

15、marketplace. Firstly, the end users are demanding tube products in a wider variety of shapes and sizes. The manufacturers of tubes and pipes face the complexity when the shapes required are other than regular ones and si

16、zes become either very small or very large. Secondly, applications that require special materials such as titanium alloy are becoming more common and special techniques are needed to process them. Finally, improved prod-

17、 uct quality with reasonable cost is being demanded from every manufacturer. To meet these challenges, it is necessary to use optimized tooling and advanced manufacturing and quality con- trol techniques. This paper brie

18、fly outlines different aspects of manufacturing tubes and pipes.2. Tube and pipe manufacturing processesPromising developments have been made over the past decades to master the manufacturing processes in terms of prod-

19、uct quality, process quality, automation, etc. Various methods of manufacturing tubes and pipes from different materials are briefly described in the following sections.0924-0136/$ – see front matter © 2006 Elsevier

20、 B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2006.03.104M.S.J. Hashmi / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 179 (2006) 5–10 7Fig. 3. Large diameter (a) steel [12] and (b) concrete pipes [9].2.2. Non-metalli

21、c tubes and pipesPlastic tubes and pipes are constructed using many different plastic compounds such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethy- lene, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polypropylene (PP), etc. for flow lines of

22、 liquids and gases in pneumatic, hydraulic, household, medical and many other specialized applications. The basic manufacturing processes of plastic tubes and pipes are moulding, casting, forming of sheets, and extrusion

23、 being the most common. Composite tubes reinforced with organic (e.g., synthetic) or inorganic (e.g., glass) fibers in polymeric matrix are becoming more popular due to their higher stiff- ness and lower weight [8], and

24、are manufactured by moulding (resin transfer moulding, lapped moulding, etc.), casting and pultrusion techniques. Concrete pipe is one of the most ver- satile, durable and economical conduits for the transportation of wa

25、ter, industrial wastes and sewage since the start of civi- lization. Today, there are three commonly used processes for producing precast concrete pipes: dry cast, packerhead and wet cast [9]. The traditional concrete pi

26、pes are reinforced by metal or a large volume of fly ash is being used as a replacement for cement to make it long, strong and better [10]. Paper tubes are manufactured through spiral winding by automatic winding machine

27、, glued by glue device and cut into specified length by auto cut-off units for applications in textile, paper and packaging industries.3. Recent developmentsLast few decades have witnessed several new developments in tub

28、e and pipe manufacturing industries in terms of new mate- rial,sizesandshapes,manufacturingprocessandqualitycontrol, and improvements are still ongoing to meet further challenges. Tubes and pipes required for high and lo

29、w temperature appli- cations like power plant, and gas and oil exploration in cold areas (e.g., Alaska, Arctic) and deep seas are steadily pro- gressing. Tubes and pipes with higher wall thickness (several hundred millim

30、eters) have been made from the material with high mechanical strength and corrosion resistance. Multilayer tubesconsistingofdifferentmaterialsbondedtogetherhavebeen developed to meet the application demands where the con

31、di- tions outside and inside the tube require properties that cannot be made from a single material [11], for example, superheater in boilers. Stainless steel is the dominating material in such applications. The developm

32、ent of large diameter pipes ranging from sev- eral hundred millimeters to few meters will continue to meet stricter clean water mandates, to rehabilitate aging and obsolete sewer and drainage systems owing to stringent e

33、nvironmental regulations, to transport natural gas due to increased energy demands and to construct building and transportation. Con- crete pipes, either metal or fiber reinforced, will reign over underground application