The Challenge
In February 2018 we [Marcegaglia] received news that one of our regular customers was phasing out their use of a 12.00mm tube which made up around 80 % of the work for our small mill (Line 5).
Twelve months earlier we had secured an order for a special sectional tube from a company that makes IBC’s for the storage and transport of liquid products. We were producing this tube on our medium range mill (Line 3) but had always experienced setting up problems. The volume of required tube was also increasing and beginning to impact capacity on the line. For these reasons I was asked about the possibility of producing the tube on Line 5.
Line 5 is a compact mill that was designed to produce a range of small diameter round tubes. The immediate problem was that the design of the mill is relatively compact and there was provision only for a single straightening stand. The special section requires four stands to form the tube shape and straighten and there was not room for even one extra stand on the existing bed. There was a small amount of room to extend the bed before encroaching on the cut-off but even then there would only be enough room for one more of our Turks Head stands so we needed something very different.
The Solution
Bellcliffe Engineering had recently started supplying us with roll tooling and because of my history of working with their experienced personnel over the years I felt confident that they would be able to help. I contacted Ray Wellings and he and their designer Steve Robinson came over and I explained everything that I wanted. They very quickly came out with proposals and we soon agreed a way forward and after taking a few measurements they went away to formulate a preliminary formal proposal and price. We had agreed on a raft to bolt on the end of our existing bed which would incorporate four ultra-compact Turks Head stands with roll tooling to suit. They would also supply an identical raft for our existing round straightening stand to bolt to so that any tube size changes would involve a straight swap without disturbing any roll tooling. Within a few weeks we had agreed on a price and a final design and an order was placed. Over the following weeks there was a lot of collaboration between us while we sorted out the precise measurements and details but a few months later we received delivery and were able to set-up off-line for the initial trial.
When the time came, the production crew set up the mill to the correct size of tube prior to us positioning the new equipment. The raft was lowered into position and slotted perfectly onto the alignment keys so that we could drill and tap the existing bed for fixing. This all went very easily to plan and we were soon in a position to set up for the job.
To my relief, set-up was quicker and easier than we had ever experienced on Line 3 and we haven’t looked back since. Since late 2018, the bulk of the work on this mill has been the special section with other jobs being inserted only occasionally. Even then there are very few set-up issues due to the quick swap raft system allowing the tooling to stay in place.
Quite a few people here doubted that this could be done but Bellcliffe Engineering proved them wrong.
Photograph of raft system in situ now.
Mark Charteris (Technical Manager Marcegaglia UK)
October 2022
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