FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a Sensor mechanism for minimizing the noise
produced while handling the finished tubes at various sequence of operations
that are performed by equipments during cold drawing process in the tube
manufacturing unit. More particularly, the invention relates to a method in a
system for noise minimization and automatic packaging in cold milling steel
tube production.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
During cold mill process many operations are involved like pointing, drawing,
Hydro test, NDT testing, oiling and straightening, packing in converting a
billet into a tube form. In all these activities, noise levels generated are above
threshold levels which lead to high sound pollution in the work environment.
The noise levels are found to be generally greater than threshold level
(95dbA). When human beings are exposed to such kind of high sound
pollution over a long period of time, it leads to health hazards like hearing
related problems and ultimately to permanent deafness. As per statutory
requirements for industrial areas, noise levels are targeted to be below 70-
75dbA for few hours of working per day. The operational bay is normally
covered with asbestos roof tiles, and the area being closed, the noise is
reverberated causing stress to the operators. Though protective safety
equipment like ear plugs are used but still health issues arises over prolonged
time as the average noise levels measured is more than 90dBA levels which is
much above the industrial levels of 70dBA required.
The noise is generated mainly when the tubes are piled during collection in
trough after each operation. The height of fall of a tube varies between 1 to
1.5m at various operational equipments mentioned earlier. There are 315kN,

800kN, 50T and 60T drawing machines used for generally tubes of sizes
21.3mm to 82.5mm OD and lengths varying between 5 to 15m are handled.
The operational speed i.e. amount of time taken to complete operations at
each one of the working platforms on one tube and ready to fall into
collection trough varies between 1 to 3 minute. Each lot consist of 40 to 70
tubes to be collected before a hoist is used to bundle and tied up with
metallic ropes and carried away to other bay or storage yard.
The present invention teaches an automatic mechanism to collect the tubes
and drop the tubes at lesser height so that the noise produced during the
tube operations can be reduced. In this invention a method is disclosed which
serves purpose of reducing the noise generated during tube manufacturing
process by eliminating the source of the noise generation.
The prior art methods use conventional knowledge of avoiding noise during
the aforesaid tube operations, for example, placing a rubber mat on the floor
where the tubes are falling or lay husk on the floor. These methods may be
able to support if there is only one tube to handle while falling after
operations. Here for plurality of tubes that are operated batch-wise, meaning
that each time certain numbers of tube are handled one by one after
production operations. During the batch operation of the tubes, with the
above mentioned approaches, a first tube of the batch may not produce
much noise as it is falling directly on a rubber mat or husk, but the
subsequent tubes falling would produce noise as if there is no rubber mat or
husk, as these tubes collide with each other and produce reverberating noise.
US Patent Application US 3018991A discloses an improved damping pad for
isolation a source of vibration from the surroundings, and more particularly to
a damping pad including a glass fiber pack with a rigid slab thereon and a
wall there around which is resistant to the passage of air.

US Patent Application US3860086 discloses an improved apparatus for
reducing the transmitted sound level of a machine to an operator. More
specifically, this invention is a noise reduction enclosure for a can body
maker.
European Patent Application EP0737620A1 disclosed to an integral protective
and sound-insulating chamber for automatic machines in general and
especially for automatic sweet and chocolate wrapping machines and other
automatic packaging machines.
Chinese Patent Application CN202962576U discloses a noise reduction lining
plate for a ball grinder. The noise reduction lining plate comprises a rubber
layer and a manganese-steel lining plate, wherein the rubber layer is
arranged at the bottom of the manganese-steel lining plate. The noise
reduction lining plate is simple in structure and convenient to use; and noise
produced by the impact between a steel ball and the lining plate can be
effectively closed in a cavity of the ball grinder, so that an effect of reducing
noise is achieved.
Chinese Patent Application CN2432458Y describes a silencer, more precisely,
a ball mill noise protection device for power ball mills. The device is a sound
insulation device, particularly a sound insulation protector for a steel ball coal
mill, which is suitable for the sound insulation and noise reduction of the steel
ball coal mill in a heat (thermal) power plant. The sound insulation protector
for the steel ball coal mill is composed of skeletons of channel steels and
sound insulation cover plates, wherein the skeletons of the channel steels are
formed by the connection of bolts. Both sides of the skeleton of the channel
steel are provided with doors, and the sound insulation cover plate is
arranged on the skeleton of the channel steel. The sound insulation cover

plate is composed of sound insulation plates, glad fiber feels, damping layers,
and steel plates.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the invention to propose a method in a system for
noise minimization and automatic packaging in cold milling steel tube
production, the noise generation while handling tubes that are operated on
any of the sequence of operations involved in the tube manufacturing
process.
Another object of the invention is to propose a method in a system for noise
minimization and automatic packaging in cold milling steel tube production
which can reduce noise by mitigating the source of noise generation during
handling of the tubes in multi-task operations in the cold still mills.
A further object of the invention is to propose a method in a system for noise
minimization and automatic packaging in cold milling steel tube production
which can be retrofitted on any of the operational equipment of the mill for
example, pointing machines, drawing machines, straitening machines, oiling
areas, storage areas, NDT areas, Hydro testing areas of the steel mill.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:
Accordingly, there is provided a method in a system for noise minimization
and automatic packaging in cold milling steel tube production. The device in
the system is capable to handle work-in-progress or finished tubes from
various intermediate stages of operations of cold drawing to reduce the noise
produced by the tubes by eliminating free fall of the tubes onto the floor or

collide onto each other that are already stored on the floor after completion
of an operation
According to the proposed method, a Sensor mechanism (mounted on
working platform) senses, and counts the number of tubes passing through
the platform and accordingly transmits a signal (after sensing pre-defined
number of tubes in one layer) to a controller, which controls a piston cylinder
mechanism disposal in a trough make the next layer of tubes into trough. The
height of total fall of the tube from working platform to trough would be
reduced by introduction of this mechanism, thereby leading to noise
reduction. Once the finished tubes are placed at prescribed place, the
controller of the mechanism activates motion to reach its initial position and
wait to receive tubes further from manufacturing process.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
Figure 1: Shows an arrangement of one of the tube production operations
with a pneumatically operated drawing bench platform and tubes collecting
trough.
Figure 2: Shows Layer wise tube arrangement for compact packing of the
tubes.
Figure 3: Schematic diagram of illustrating a method, where the trough
moves up and down based on the number of tubes (Sensed by a sensor
mounted on the drawing bench platform) that are collected on the trough. (a)
Side view of the collecting trough when an operated tube is being collected,
(b) Side view of the collecting trough when a second layer of tubes are being
collected; where it can also be seen that the sliding portion of the trough has
moved down by an amount proportional to the weight of the tubes in the
trough such that distance of top portion of the tubes is always constant from

the drawing bench platform. (c)Isometric view of the collecting trough at its
empty state, (d) Isometric view of the collecting trough after collecting at
least one operated tube,
Figure 4: Sequence of steps involved in packing the finished tubes
automatically.
Figure 5: Schematic diagram of a Sensor mounting on the platform for
sensing the number of tubes and activating the pneumatic platform after
predefined number of tubes for appropriate movement to perform activities.
Figure 6: Schematic diagram of LED Sensor describing (a) LED sensor
counting mechanism when tube is present. (b) LED sensor counting
mechanism when tube is absent.
Figure 7: (a) Mechanism showing the tubes being filled for the last two layers
in the compact tube packing process. (b) After the tubes are filled as per the
arrangement it is rotated by 90o on either one of the sides to be able to
stably place in floor.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE
INVENTION
Figure 1 represents an arrangement of one of the various operations involved
in the tube production process that generally have to be performed on a tube
before it is converted from a billet to final finished tube product. Figure 1
represents main components like head-stock (1), Incoming tube receiving
area (2), movable tube receiving trough (3) and a platform (4) through which
the tube is fed to the head stock. When these operations are performed in
the existing arrangement, dropping of tubes from the working platform (4) to
the trough (3) leads to a heavy noise which pollutes the work environment.
To address this issue of noise generated due to these operations, a sensor
based noise reduction device is provided in the current invention.

Figure 3 (a) shows the mechanism in the invention consists a “V” shaped
piston mechanism (5) disposed inside the trough (3) which can move up and
down with the help of a pneumatically controlled cylinder (7). To sense the
number of tubes falling on the V shaped piston (5), at least one sensor (8) is
placed on the platform. Figure 6(a) and 6(b) shows the LED sensor counting
mechanism when tube present and absent respectively. The “V” shape piston
mechanism (5) move downwards (pre-defined height) during the processing
the actuating cylinder through after sensing the pre-defined number of tubes.
Based on the length of the tubes being processed, at least two or more “V”
shaped piston mechanisms are placed to support the tubes at equidistance.
These mechanisms are placed at a certain height such that it is at a height
just less than the height of the working platform (4) which will help to receive
the tubes under gravitation effect; reduced height of tube falling helps in
reducing the noise that is generated.
Figure 2 depicts an example of layer by layer arrangement of the tubes with
one particular diameter size. The invention disclosed herein will help in
achieving the tubes arrangement shown in Figure 2. Figures 3(a) and (b)
show the sequence of the operations and positions such that the total
arrangements receives tubes smoothly, layer by layer as shown in Figure 2.
Figures 3(c) and (d) show the isometric representation of the platform at its
empty state and when it is holding one tube is in the trough(6) respectively
Figure 4 shows the steps involved in achieving the arrangement of tube
shown in Figure 2. Figure 5 visualizes the mechanism augmentation change
for achieving the layer-by-layer of tube to finally pack the tubes in a compact
manner.

Figures 3 (a) and (b) in conjunction with Figure 4 show the detailed
schematic description of a method and the explain method of the current
invention. Figures 3 (a) and (b) depicts as to how the tube moves from the
operating area into the trough when the “V” shaped piston (5) in the trough
is empty and one layer is already filled respectively. The trough will be at the
same position till it collects some predetermined number of tubes sensed by
sensor (8) for that layer (12) (13). Once the predetermined number of tubes
is collected, the “V” shaped piston in the trough senses the number of tubes
reached for the current layer using a counter in the controller (14). Then the
controller sends (14) transmits a command to move the “V” shaped piston
downwards by a predetermined distance which is proportional to the height
from the initial distance from the working platform (4). Figure 3(b) shows the
position of the trough after moving downward by the predetermined distance
and ready for accepting to collect a new set of tubes till it reaches the second
set of predetermined number of tubes. This sensing and predetermined
weights and thereby number of tubes will continue till the trough is filled or in
other words the final set of number of tubes are collected by the trough and
ready to move these tubes for next operations (12), (13) and (14).
For arranging the tubes for compact packing, Figure 7 (a) shows an extract
arrangement with an extending arm (16), which will help for laying the tubes
into last two layers of the package. After satisfying the number of layer
criteria in the operation (14), it moves to operation (15) and gives a visual
alert to the operator to move the package for the next stage of operations.
While the invention has been described in detail in connection with only a
limited number of embodiments, it should be readily understood that the
invention is not limited to such disclosed embodiments. Rather, the invention
can be modified to incorporate any number of variations, alterations,
substitutions or equivalent arrangements not heretofore described, but which

are commensurate with the spirit and scope of the invention. Additionally,
while various embodiments of the invention have been described, it is to be
under stood that aspects of the invention may include only some of the
described embodiments. Accordingly, the invention is not to be seen as
limited by the foregoing description, but is only limited by the scope of the
appended claims.

WE CLAIM :
1. A method in a system for noise minimization and automatic packaging
in cold milling steel tube production, comprising :-
a plurality of "V" shaped piston (5);
one each pneumatically actuated cylinder (7) attached to each of the
plurality of "V" shaped piston (5) to move the piston upwardly and
downwardly;
a plurality of sensor (8) mounted on a working platform, which senses
the number of tubes passing through the platform and transmits signal
to a counter which counts and displays the number of passed tubes;
a trough that is attached to the pneumatically actuated mechanism to
receive the processed tubes; and
a controller to process the received signals from the sensors and
command the movement of the trough corresponding the movement
of the piston (5) is activated once the predetermined number of tubes
fell into trough in one layer, and wherein a visual feedback to the
operator is displayed after an allowed number of tube layers are
deposited on the trough for packaging including movement of the
package to the next stage.