CASE STUDY | Linisher

Industrial Tube has six purpose-built mills in Hamilton. Established in 1985, they manufacture quality steel and stainless tube for the domestic and international market—from roll cage tubes to carbon aluminised tube, pre-galvanised tube to hygienic tube. Their products are 100% recyclable, and they have Gold Certification with the Sustainable Steel Council.

THE CHALLENGE

Industrial Tube Manufacturing approached Caliber to create an inline, tube linishing machine to integrate onto their existing tube manufacturing mill. Its purpose is to remove the weld bead which forms during tube manufacture, resulting in poor surface finish that had a direct effect on the aesthetic and structural integrity of the product.

Because of the nature of the automated manufacturing process, defects could only be detected during post manufacture inspection. The inline linisher enables the client to cut out the time-consuming inspection and correction tasks.

THE SOLUTION

The finished linisher was designed by amalgamating a range of the client’s existing engineering processes and techniques into a single machine tool. The key challenges were to fit the machine into a finite space on the existing mill and provide a semi-automated control system.

This was done through a cycle of brainstorming, concepting, detail design, design review, and production of manufacturing drawings.

The final solution consisted of a drive pulley, an idler pulley, and a tensioner pulley setup. Other key design inputs include height adjustment and autonomous lift off, tilt adjustment, belt wrap, and dust extractor system.

This solution all fitted within the designated space and the control systems allowed for autonomous starting, stopping and adjustments.