2016 International Conference on Advanced Materials Science and Technology (AMST 2016) ISB: 978-1-60595-397-7 The Development of Steel Pipes Automatic Stacking Forming Machine in China Xun GUA 2,*, ing CHE 1, Meng-sheng WAG 3, Shou-xin ZHU 2,3 and Wei-fang AG 4 1 Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310058, China 2 Huzhou Mechanical Engineering Associations, Huzhou, Zhejiang, 313000 3 Huzhou Teachers College, Huzhou, Zhejiang, 313000, China 4 Huzhou Anda Auto Parts Co., Ltd, Huzhou, Zhejiang, 313000, China *Corresponding author Keywords: Forming machine, Steel pipes stack, Design of mechanical structure. Abstract. Through the analysis of the process of steel tube stacking, the design, manufacture and realization of the mechanical and control system of the steel pipes automatic stacking machine were carried out in this paper. This machine has a relatively high stability, reliability and automation. The equipment ensures the quality of the steel pipe and enhances the product's market competitiveness, to bring considerable economic benefits for the enterprise. Introduction In recent ten years, It has a very fast growth of steel products and exports of enterprises in China; At the same time, these enterprises are faced with the severe competition in the market. The "Soft" quality of the product which is the quality of the product packaging has become the market competitiveness of enterprises. The large iron and steel enterprises are still using manual mode of operation of the packaging steel in China, and its packaging can not meet the actual production and export tasks [1]. From the packaging point of view, most of the enterprises are mainly artificial packaging in China [2]. A steel forming mechanism are shown in Figure 1 below. 1. Bench 2. Hexagonal forming mechanism Figure 1. A steel pipe forming machine in China. Here is the working principle of the forming mechanism. Shifting down the pipe bench, the steel tubes directly tumble onto the hexagonal forming mechanism 1m bellow. When the steel tubes roll forming, the manual steel bundle packages will be carried away. In the process of falling, galvanization layer on the surface of steel tubes will be damaged by the collision, thus there will be a big loss in steel molding packaging production. There are also some chinese enterprises that have developed advanced steel molding machine, such as automatic seamless steel molding machine of Tientsin [3]. 128
Since the 1860s, Germany, Japan and other countries, have developed semi-automatic and fully automatic stacking steel forming machines. These machines have the advantages of short response time, positioning accuracy, high stability and reliability, and their construction cost is about more than one million. These machines are available to many kinds of steels, and stacking steel forming is above 30bales/hour. On the basis of stacking steel forming machines in other countries, the automatic stacking steel pipe forming machine in this paper can be applied to stacking steel pipes of 60-219 mm in diameter. The Design of the Automatic Stacking Steel Forming Machine The Design of the Automatic Stacking Steel Forming Machine The design of the automatic stacking steel forming machine should meet the following requirements: The maximum weight single pipe: 224.1kg; The maximum weight of a bundle of steel tubes: 2128kg; Texture: Q195-Q345 Steel pipes of various specifications are shown in Figure 2 below. Figure 2. Steel pipes of various specifications. Workflow of the Automatic Stacking Steel Forming Machine The machine works as follows: 1. Steel pipes alignment: Through the bench, the pipes get into the horizontal position of the bench, and then the air cylinder drives the plectrum plate, making the steel pipes alignment, one by one at the end of the pipe. 2. Layer pipes transportation: Before the working, the electromagnetic lifting hanged on the location origin that is 800mm at the top left of the center location between the baffle and the horizontal roller for picking. After tube alignment, the proximity switch on the bench will be triggered, making the servo drive to work, and then to drive the servo motor. When the servo motor is transferred, and the electromagnetic lifting transport the pipe layer just above the center of the bench to complete the transport layer pipes. When the servo motor is reversed, the electromagnetic lifting go back to the origin location, waiting for the next layers; 3. Stacking forming: When layer pipes just above the center position of the bench, the electromagnetic lifting go down, and put the steel pipes into regular hexagon according to the type of steel pipes [4] ; 4. Forming steel pipes transportation: After formed, through horizontal roller transmission mechanism, the forming steel pipes will be sent to the artificial pneumatic baling area [5]. The process of automatic stacking forming steel pipes is as follows: Steel pipes rolling, 129
Pipes alignment, The electromagnetic lifting(el) going down and picking, Electromagnetic lifting upward movement, Packing carried away, Electromagnetic lifting going down and discharging, Electromagnetic lifting upward movement, Packing and carried away. According to requirement, the maximum of each bundle is 37roots, and the longest time is 315s. Each bundle is divided into seven layers: The forming time of the first layer is 29s (The number of this layer is 4roots), the time of the second to seven layers respectively is 16s(The number of these layers respectively is 5, 6, 7, 6, 5, 4roots), and the time of packing and carried away is 90s. The sequence diagrams of stacking steel forming machine are shown in Figure 3. Steel pipes rolling Pipes alignment Electromagnetic lifting going down and picking Electromagnetic lifting upward movement Packing carried away Electromagnetic lifting going down and discharging Electromagnetic lifting upward movement Figure 3. The sequence diagrams of stacking steel forming machine. The Design of the Automatic Machine Stacking Forming Steel Pipes Front view and plan view of the structure diagram of the automatic machine stacking forming steel pipes respectively is shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5. Figure 4. Front view of the structure diagram of automatic machine stacking forming steel pipe. Figure 5. Plan view of the structure diagram of automatic machine stacking forming steel pipes. 130
The mechanical structure of automatic machine stacking forming steel pipes including: Alignment mechanism, Electromagnetic lifting-transporting layer pipe, Mechanism of stacking forming steel pipes and Forming roller used to convey, etc. 1. Alignment mechanism: Because the table for supplying pipes tilt to horizontal roller, the pipes automatically roll to one side near the horizontal roller. When detection system for this device (the automatic machine stacking forming steel pipes) detects the pipes in the horizontal roller table using limit switch, the control system for the device start AC motor to start the gas path control system that control solenoid valve and air cylinder to drive the rod of the cylinder to move back and forth, and then the rod makes the push plate to push the steel pipes until the end of the pipes is aligned. 2. Electromagnetic lifting-transporting layer pipe:its Include two groups electromagnet structure, door frame bracket, servo motors, ball screws, lifting sliding and horizontal sliding mechanism, etc. 3. Mechanism of stacking forming steel pipes: Workflow of this institution is as follows: The adjusting nut on the screw level, the side roller positioning accuracy, ensure compact steel stacking. 4. Forming roller used to convey: Its Include two groups of small motor, two stage reducer, 12 small rollers, raceway, belts, etc. Design of Hydraulic Drive System In a hydraulic drive system, the oil cylinder action is made up of five processes, respectively: start, acceleration, uniform speed, deceleration and stop. The hydraulic drive hydraulic system is used for the vertical stroke cylinder, its diameter is 125mm, the diameter of the piston rod is 90mm, the stroke is 1000mm, the model is GD-125/90-7, with built-in displacement sensor. The schematic diagram of hydraulic system is shown in Figure 6. Bore: Φ90/Φ125 Return valve block Design of Electrical Control System Figure 6. The schematic diagram of hydraulic system. The control core of steel pipes forming machine in this paper is SIMATIC S7-300 CPU314C-2DP and IPC. The control core adopts strong reliability driving element, including electrical, pneumatic components, electromagnet, hydraulic cylinder built-in displacement sensor etc. In the electric drive system, electric actuators is made up of 4 sets of ac motor, one motor for steel pipes input part of the pipes alignment, one motor for servo drive, the other two 131
motors for driving the transverse horizontal roller. According to the rated power and rated current of the motor, the last two motors (with brake and reducer)both chose SIEMES s 7.5kw frequency converter. The operation control flow chart of the control system is shown in Figure 7. Pipes preparation EL ready EL stick pipes EL fast drop 1m EL drop EL fast drop 1m EL lifting EL translation EL slow drop 20mm EL slow drop 20mm Specified location EL put down pipes EL delay 2 seconds EL contact pipes EL drop EL lifting Figure 7. Flow chart of the control system of electromagnetic suspended transport layer pipes. Conclusion On the base of foreign steel forming machine, the automatic steel forming machine designed in this paper (shown in Figure 8) can be available for outer diameter of 60.3mm to 219mm and other specifications of the steel pipes stacking forming. It has a good positioning accuracy and stability, with a high level of automation. The stacking ability of this machine can reach 12 bales/hour, palletizing capacity has been high, and the whole set of equipment cost is far lower than the similar stacking machine. Figure 8. The automatic stacking steel forming machine. Acknowledgement This research was financially supported by the project of Huzhou science and technology project under grant no. 2014GG16 and 2015G01, the General scientific research project of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education under grant no. 201533400, and the scientific research project of Huzhou Teachers College in 2015 under grant no. 2015XJLK32. 132
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