• Setting Up the Fin Section
• Answers from the Doctor: The Real Cause of Edge Splitting and What Remedial Measures Can Be Taken
• Roll-Kraft’s Vice President of Tube Mill Engineering, Robert A. Sladky will be presenting, “Tube and Pipe Mill Set Up” on Wednesday, March 21st. from 10:15AM—12:15PM at Fabtech’s first conference in Canada -  Fabtech Canada 2012
• Join Roll-Kraft at Fabtech Canada 2012
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• Let Us Know What You Think
• Submit Article Ideas
• Training
• Request a Quote
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Setting Up the Fin Section

The primary job of the fin section on any tube or pipe mill is to prepare the edges of the strip (parallel) for welding, and set the body of the tube. The only way this will take place, is if we properly set (work) each and every driven and side pass station in the fin section as per the tooling design and set up chart.

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Symptoms:

We are using hot rolled coils for steel pipe manufacturing. The hot rolled coils are slitted depending upon the pipe diameter and the helix angle calculation. We often encounter edge-like cracking up to 25 mm at slitted edges of hot rolled coils. Edge splitting of slitted coils was also observed.
 
The slitting problem was encountered in hot rolled coils when these are sent for slitting. Edge-like cracking was observed at slitted coils’ edges before welding.
 
Kindly advise what could be the real cause of edge splitting and what remedial measures can be taken?

Medicine:

Normally hot roll product is very easy to slit, and results in very few difficulties, especially in regard to cracking.
 
The first thing to check would be the chemistry of the material itself.
 
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Roll-Kraft’s Vice President of Tube Mill Engineering, Robert A. Sladky will be presenting, “Tube and Pipe Mill Set Up” on Wednesday, March 21st. from 10:15AM—12:15PM at Fabtech’s first conference in Canada -  Fabtech Canada 2012

Join Roll-Kraft at Fabtech Canada 2012

Click here to for more information and to register.

Tech Video: Tube and Pipe Training Seminar

http://www.youtube.com/user/RollKraft2008#p/u/4/uZDUUEYAo6w

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Tech Articles

Let Us Know What You Think

If you have a suggestion for how we can improve the next issue, please email shynd@roll-kraft.com or sbetts@roll-kraft.com. You will automatically be entered into a drawing to win a Nintendo Wii.

Submit Article Ideas

Have an interesting article idea or a tough technical question for the next issue of the Tube and Pipe Pharmacy? We welcome your contribution.

For    consideration    in    an    upcoming   issue,   please   email shynd@roll-kraft.com or sbetts@roll-kraft.com with a brief description of your article. If we write an article based on your idea or question, you will receive a free gift. We look forward to your submissions.

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Roll-Kraft’s Vice President of Tube Mill Engineering, Robert A. Sladky, will be presenting, “Tube and Pipe Mill Set Up” on Wednesday, March 21st from 10:15AM—12:15PM at Fabtech’s first conference in Canada – Fabtech Canada 2012. The conference will be held March 20-22, 2012 at the Toronto Congress Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

This presentation is tailored to address and strengthen the “weak links” in the mill operations in regard to proper tube and pipe mill set up.  Problems and solutions will be outlined throughout the presentation in the major sections of forming, welding and sizing sections.

Managers, engineers, mill operators, and maintenance personnel will all benefit from this presentation.  It specifically addresses the importance of properly setting up each and every pass on the mill per the design of the tooling.

The entire focus of this presentation is to establish a “standard” for everyone to follow.  Establishing these “standards and procedures” will help identify problems and implement corrective measures that will build morale, improve product quality, reduce scrap, increase the life of the tooling, and produce greater profits.

For more information on this event, and registration, go to www.fabtechcanada.com.

In-House Tube and Pipe Mill Seminars

In addition to conducting presentations at technical conferences such as Fabtech and hosting its own regional seminars, Roll-Kraft provides in-house tube and pipe seminars and roll forming seminars at customers’ locations. This is often the best way to train the whole staff at once, in-house. Schedules and details can be obtained by contacting Roll-Kraft.

About Roll-Kraft

Roll-Kraft has its headquarters in Mentor, Ohio, and maintains other facilities in Frankfort, Illinois (Roll-Kraft Northern), and Ontario, Canada (Roll-Kraft Ltd.). The company phone number is (888) 953-9400 or (440) 205-3100, and the fax number is (440) 205-3110. Please also visit the web site at roll-kraft.com. For easy and immediate contact with Roll-Kraft that transcends time zones and working hours, the website features Dr. Resolve. Simply complete and submit an on-line form and Roll-Kraft will respond.

• Increased production capacity
• Backup to existing processes
• Lower cost production tooling

One of the advances in the roll forming industry that allows for lowering the overall tooling cost is the use of “rafted tooling.” Traditionally, a roll form line was built to produce only one part-profile. By mounting the roll tooling on moveable plates or “rafts,” the roll form line is more like a powered punch press with changeable dies. This tooling concept allows the same line to produce multiple parts on the same base with a quick tool change. The new line in Suwanee was tooled for VCS3 frames, VCS3 blades and 530/630 return blades. The changeover time on this line is expected to be 45 minutes or less to switch from one part-profile to another.

In addition to the tooling changes, the latest electronic controls from AMS in Maryland Heights, MO are also in place on this line. This hardware/software combination allows the operator to select parameters by component part number and automatically communicate part data to production control computers.

The specifications for this line were developed to include the current production needs of Suwanee, as well as future considerations. The press and roll sizing for this line will allow for common tooling in all of Price’s production facilities in the near future. This will also allow new product profiles to be considered for the economies of roll forming without having to bear the cost of an entire roll forming line.

By improving the manufacturing techniques that helped us be successful in the past, we are poised to grow into the future.

Click here to view the full testimonial from Suwanee Operations.

Roll-Kraft, a leading producer of tooling for the tube & pipe and roll forming industries conducts numerous tube and pipe training seminars and roll forming training seminars throughout the country. Recently, it has seen a new trend emerge as companies look to decrease training costs and improve efficiencies.

According to Robert Sladky, Vice President of Tube Mill Engineering, and Bret Molnar, Senior Technical Advisor for Roll-Kraft, “We are seeing a new trend in conducting seminars. More firms with multiple plants are consolidating their training programs and combining the attendees from multiple plants for their in-house seminars.”

This not only expedites the training of entire teams of personnel, but saves the costs involved in having individual seminars for each plant. It is by far the most efficient plan for these companies.

Such was the case recently for two of Roll-Kraft’s major tube & pipe customers in the East, and in the South. Each customer has multiple plants running smaller mechanical tube mills, as well as larger pipe mills. Management from each location got together and scheduled back-to-back weeks of programs at key locations, which allowed them to split up the attendees from their various plants and still keep production running on their mills.

This consolidation process has proven to be very successful, and future programs are planned for 2012.

Other firms without multiple locations simply schedule the mills to be down for a single day for their in-house training. One plant manager stated, “In the past we always made the excuse that we couldn’t shut down the mills to conduct training and kept putting it off. The fact of the matter is, we can’t afford not to. It is just a matter of scheduling and pre-planning. We are very glad we took the time for this training.”

The key areas covered in the programs are mill integrity, alignment, tooling design, setup, tooling maintenance, and developing a standard for all to follow.

Attendees are invited to comment on the training session. Recent comments include:

• “It brought more knowledge to me and will help me to be a more cautious operator. It also answered questions that I had and doubts as well!!”
• “This training will be useful to evaluate failures on products run, by looking at the setups and also the tooling. It will help me train mill operators.”
• “This will help me significantly due to being a new operator. It was very helpful because it covered and broke down all the aspects of the mill.”
• “It defines procedures that should be followed to be effective, but up until now, haven’t been.”
• “I feel the instruction was very helpful to our operation here because there are a lot of things that we are doing wrong. Thanks. Very good class.”

Roll-Kraft has its headquarters in Mentor, Ohio, and maintains other facilities in Frankfort, Illinois (Roll-Kraft Northern), and Ontario Canada (Roll-Kraft Ltd.). The company phone number is (888) 953-9400 or (440) 205-3100, and the fax number is (440) 205-3110. Please also visit the web site at http://www.roll-kraft.com/. For easy and immediate contact with Roll-Kraft that transcends time zones and working hours, the website features Dr. Resolve. Simply complete and submit an on-line form and Roll-Kraft will respond.

The Roll-Kraft presentation at this year’s Fabtech Technical Conference, entitled, “Tube and Pipe Mill Setup, Tooling Design Evaluation, and Problems and Solutions” drew more than double the attendance of previous years.

MENTOR, OH -  November, 2011

Roll-Kraft’s Robert A. Sladky, Vice President of Tube Mill Engineering and Bret Molnar, Senior Technical Advisor presented, “Tube and Pipe Mill Setup, Tooling Design Evaluation, and Problems and Solutions,” at Fabtech’s Technical Conferences recently held in Chicago. 

This year’s attendance was more than double the previous years of the conferences.  The Technical Conferences are held in conjunction with the annual Fabtech Trade Shows and offer concise, focused learning opportunities for attendees.

The audience for Roll-Kraft’s technical tube and pipe presentation was made up of those with a wide variety of experience in the tube and pipe industry.  It was comprised of management, engineering, maintenance, and operators, as well as some attendees who were new to the industry.

According to Sladky, audience participation and questions during and after the presentation were a vital part of the session and allowed for further discussion with the group.

In addition to conducting presentations at technical conferences such as Fabtech and hosting its own regional seminars, Roll-Kraft provides in-house tube and pipe seminars and roll forming seminars at customers’ locations.   This is often the best way to train the whole staff at once, in-house.  Schedules and details can be obtained by contacting the company.

About Roll-Kraft:

Roll-Kraft has its headquarters in Mentor, Ohio, and maintains other facilities in Frankfort, Illinois (Roll-Kraft Northern), and Ontario, Canada (Roll-Kraft Ltd.).  The company phone number is (888) 953-9400 or (440) 205-3100, and the fax number is (440) 205-3110.  Please also visit the web site at roll-kraft.com.  For easy and immediate contact with Roll-Kraft that transcends time zones and working hours, the website features Dr. Resolve.  Simply complete and submit an on-line form and Roll-Kraft will respond.

In addition to customers from Nebraska, many others from surrounding states also attended the program.

The program was presented Robert A. Sladky, Vice President of Tube Mill Engineering.

Below is a sampling of some of the comments from the course attendees:

• Five months into my job here, it was a great amount of pertinent data. I also think it’s a great refresher training for more experienced operators.
• It gave me a better understanding of operation and maintenance.
• Very thorough and informative. Would be beneficial for all mill employees, not just operators.
• I realized the importance of standards for setup and operation. Maintaining tooling is vital.
• Being new to welding, this technical information has jump-started my education in this field and gave me several ideas of projects to implement to improve this department. I now have a better understanding of this information and am confident in the reasoning behind the science.

Roll-Kraft In-Your-Plant Training Sessions

Roll-Kraft also conducts on-site training sessions at customer facilities, on their own equipment. Visit Roll-Kraft’s website for more information on tube and pipe training and roll forming training.

Roll-Kraft has recently upgraded its tube and pipe design and roll forming design software used in engineering custom-made tube and pipe tooling and roll forming tooling. This upgrade will now allow the software to design the bearingless floating flange within the program. The improvement will immediately reduce engineering time by close to 50%. The program will draw up each piece of the bearingless floating flange and produce an assembly drawing. The result will be shorter manufacturing times for the programmers and standardization of the various processes.

Roll-Kraft is continually dedicated to making improvements and upgrades to provide the highest quality tooling to the tube & pipe and roll forming industries. As a leader in the field, Roll-Kraft takes pride in setting high standards for its products and the ability to provide the customer with exactly what they need, both in tooling and in service.

About Roll-Kraft

Roll-Kraft has its headquarters in Mentor, Ohio, and maintains other facilities in Frankfort, Illinois (Roll-Kraft Northern), and Ontario Canada (Roll-Kraft Ltd.). The company phone number is (888) 953-9400 or
(440) 205-3100, and the fax number is (440) 205-3110. Please also visit the web site at www.roll-kraft.com. For easy and immediate contact with Roll-Kraft that transcends time zones and working hours, the website features Dr. Resolve. Simply complete and submit the on-line form and Roll-Kraft will contact you.

Roll-Kraft, a leading producer of tube and pipe tooling and roll forming tooling, is pleased to announce the addition of Juergen Hack to the staff at Roll-Kraft Ltd. in Ontario, Canada as an Account Manager. Mr. Hack comes to Roll-Kraft from ECO Solutions FT, Inc. His experience there was as Technical Business Development Manager, opening up markets across Canada and in the U.S. through direct sales and agent and distribution networks.

His various previous experience included Business Development Manager at Valiant Machine, Vice President of Operations and Energy Services at Everlite Energy, and Global Business Technical Development Manager at Stak Industries. In each case, his efforts led to the sales targets being exceeded by 24-33%. He brings with him substantial experience with international accounts, setting up proper service channels, and leading and training sales teams.

Roll-Kraft Ltd. is wholly owned by Roll-Kraft in Mentor, Ohio. There is also an additional facility in Frankfort, Illinois (Roll-Kraft Northern), The company phone number is (888) 953-9400 or (440) 205-3100, and the fax number is (440) 205-3110. Please also visit the web site at www.roll-kraft.com. For easy and immediate contact with Roll-Kraft that transcends time zones and working hours, the website features Dr. Resolve. Simply complete and submit an on-line form and Roll-Kraft will contact you.

Roll-Kraft is pleased to announce that Patrick J. Hopkins has been selected to be a part of the Young Professional Council. This is a group sponsored by the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association (FMA). Their mission is to identify, create, and establish mentoring and networking opportunities to reach potential entrepreneurs, business owners, and those interested in a manufacturing career.

The group provides speakers for manufacturing conferences, local schools, and various other opportunities, to enumerate the advantages and benefits of being involved in the manufacturing community. Often, the group works directly with school guidance counselors to answer questions and challenge America’s youth to investigate the field of manufacturing. Their effort is to dispel the old stereotypes of dirty and dangerous factory workplaces, and expose them to the updated, modern factory floor, with automated systems, and clean working conditions. There are many advantages in pursuing a career in manufacturing these days.

Roll-Kraft is a leading producer of tube and pipe tooling and roll forming tooling. With 48 years of manufacturing experience, Roll-Kraft is very dedicated to the efforts of this council.

Roll-Kraft has its headquarters in Mentor, Ohio, and maintains other facilities in Frankfort, Illinois (Roll-Kraft Northern), and Ontario Canada (Roll-Kraft Ltd.). The company phone number is (888) 953-9400 or (440) 205-3100, and the fax number is (440) 205-3110. Please also visit the web site at www.roll-kraft.com. For easy and immediate contact with Roll-Kraft that transcends time zones and business hours, the website features Dr. Resolve. Simply complete and submit an on-line form and Roll-Kraft will respond.

Over the past year, I have had the opportunity to obtain the services of Roll-Kraft Northern. I am happy to supply them this testimonial.

Being new to the roll-forming industry, I began my relationship with them with limited knowledge of roll tooling. With the help of Dan Ruiz, the Sales staff, Engineering personnel, and all others involved I have been able to maintain our tooling inventory with relative ease. My ultimate responsibility here is making sure we have quality tooling available to manufacture a quality product. The services I’ve received through quality regrinds, low lead times, and on time deliveries has been exceptional, making this possible.

I would also like to recognize Roll-Kraft, as an entity, for being there as support in troubleshooting some of the issues we may have had on our tube mills other than tooling.

I appreciate Dan Ruiz keeping in touch with me on a regular basis to make sure Roll-Kraft Northern is satisfying our needs and look forward continuing our business relationship for years to come.

Sincerely,
Ron Perttu, Tooling Technician
Tectron Tube
DePere, WI