This invention relates to bending & forming of the tube in a single specialized optimized automated cell.
The present invention relates to an optimized tube bending & forming the cell, and more particularly an automatic tube manufacturing cell which covers all the operations as specified in design requirement & transportation of tube by a programmed single robot without the involvement of line operator with higher accuracy & reliability.
Metallic tubes to be bent in the tube bending cell are the need to deliver to the next various cells where further operations are required before final loading of the tube.
Tubing is used extensively in a variety of situation. One example is seat structure frame for the automobile industry. Tubing manufacturing involves numerous processes including cutting, seam detection, notching, squeezing, swaging, greasing & forming etc. to bent into desired shapes for particular vehicle applications there is need of higher accuracy, repeatability of the part with minimum rejection & cycle time. & that too should accommodate in lower cost value.
Experienced operators are required to efficiently control the tube bending systems to form accurate bends in the tube and minimized damaged which results in the waste of time and tube themselves. While the repeatability of the formation of accurate tube bends is possible to a certain extent, errors and differences often occur due to the skill of operator, fatigue and environment conditions etc.
It can be seen from the foregoing that a need exists for an automated pipe bending system that is controlled by the programmed processor with a high degree of repeatability and accuracy.
Accordingly, a more robust, reliable and automated system is needed to fulfill the above-mentioned requirements.The present invention relates to an automated manufacturing line of multi-stage operation on tubes as per the OEM's requirement & more particularly to an automated tube operations manufacturing line suitable for the execution of tube operations process in a controlled & faster manner.
A multi-operations tube manufacturing is designed and installed for manufacturing of different types of tube products in which loading and unloading of
A method of making such arrangements relied upon human efforts in the past. In recent years, however, so-called automatic arrangements using computers and self-powered material movements systems have widely been made.
In conventional type arrangements, where the specialized cell was used are required material trolleys for finished and unfinished tubes separately for each station. Trained Manpower for each station is also required for manufacturing & controlling the process. In other cases, there was a need of fixtures also which is required to control the orientation of tubes. For processing the tubes in different operations manpower movement is also required & this concept is not in favor of lean manufacturing system. The conventional type system was aimed to scene the manufacturing with a view to the independent use of each station. However, an integrated production system or combined industrial machine aimed at the improvement of production efficiency is developed; a demand for the development of an automatic manufacturing system adapted to the CIM is made at present time. In order to cope with this demand, an automated manufacture or production line including automatic working conveyors and robots using an external computer have been developed.
Drawbacks in existing state of the art
In the conventional type of bending cells, there was separate type bending tube cell. This also means a specially trained operator is required to do the bending of tubes. In some cases, bending of the tube was done in manual mode. Accuracy was the major concerns in those methods. Also in separate type cells, the need of extra trolleys for material carrying was also the major concern. Therefore more space is required to place the extra trolleys. For other forming and greasing operation, the need for separate machines along with moving trolleys in between cells was also required. In all these case operators need to move from one place to another place. As per lean manufacturing concept, the extra movement within cells for the process was considered as waste, which means productivity is down. On the other hand, the movement of trolleys within the cells makes it more complicated.
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For completion of all the aforesaid operations, these types of cells required extra numbers of manpower. The extra number of manpower not only costs more but also increases the chances of human errors. If we see in current scenario most of the machines are converting into the automated machine, which also means there is a reduction in dependency of manpower.
In existing designs, there is no detection of tube cutting length & its seam orientation. All the cutting was done by manually checking & marking on the tubes & after that final cutting with manual tools or hand grinders. Again doing things manually leads to more errors in operation. Thus reducing the quality of the parts required.
Manually feeding the tubes for other operations was also the major challenge for tube manufactures. This was usually done by operators which carried the tube trolley & moves to different operations. Manually feeding the tubes normally increases the cycle time of the particular operation.

Utility of invention i.e. possible application area(s) of invention
The present invention realizes an automated tube manufacturing system which automatically performs all processes including an inputting process, a greasing, bending & forming process using programmed robots & computerized manufacturing system to fulfill the different requirements of the customer with a single low-cost, optimized cell. Accordingly, with the automated system, it is possible to improve productivity and ensure consistent product quality.
This cell is dedicatedly designed to fulfill the need of Tube bending for the Automobile industry, but the concept is equally applicable in all fields where tube manufacturing operations are required.
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DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS:
FIG. (1) Is a perspective view which shows an automated tube manufacturing system which automatically performs all the process by programmed robots & computerized manufacturing system. FIG. (2) Is a flowchart of an operation process of the present invention. FIG. (3) Is an example of conventional type manufacturing cell
Detailed description of the invention
A tube bending machine is shown in Fig. 1 that is used to bending tube into the desired shape. The tube is manipulated by the machine to provide numerous bends along all length such that it can be used for the desired application. The tube bending machine is substantial of pre-set-known type. Therefore, it will not be described in detail with reference to all its parts, but only those parts which are of some interest for the present invention will be cited and described.
A tube manufacturing cell provided with a fully automatic system according to the present invention allows, therefore, placing each time to be bent & formed with the desired shape the cross section of the tube and without the requirement of special tools or loading fixtures. In this connection Fig. 1 and shows the how the invention allows loading a tube on the arrangement which first detects the length & further seam orientation in order to detect in earlier stage the requirement of the design. In this section, if tube founds as per the design requirement then it proceeds further or otherwise stop & automatically give the warnings to the supervisor.
With reference to Fig 1, the First step is to start the process by using Human Machine Interface system which allows the user to select the model as per production schedule. Also, all kind of errors can be easily detected here & operators are trained to rectify those errors. HMI is also used to set the production quantity. It is equipped with many buttons to do the controlling of multiple parameters. Next step is to feed the tubes as per the requirements.
With reference to Fig. 2, all the operations are well explained in flow chart & in a stepwise manner. The flowchart explains the various operations which are automatically performed by this unique cell. The process starts by operating the Human-Machine interface, which is specially designed to perform the various desired tube manufacturing operations. The desired program is selected from the interface as per the schedule of production. After that, the operator loads the tube in the cell. This segment automatically checks the length & seam of the tube, considering drawing standards. The arrangement of hoppers continuously feed

the tubes to seam detection station. If the seam detection is found OK, as per the drawing specification then only it moves to next station. The sensors are used to detect the desired specification of the tube. After this, if swaging is required the robots picked the tube and placed it on this station. Otherwise, it moves to the next station, where greasing is being poured into the tube. This is also controlled by the sensors. The amount of the grease which is specified in the drawing is poured inside the tube. Again in some cases where the greasing is not required, the tubes are directly placed in the tube bending cell. The tube bending is done by the most advanced CNC operated machine. This machine is capable of bending the tube into any desired shape, which also includes three dimensions critical bends. When bending of the tube is done the robots automatically picks the tube and placed it in pressing unit. The forming of the tube is done on this station. After final stamping operation is done, tubes are automatically placed in Final trolleys.
Human Machine interface by the use of computer programming is controlled this complete layout.
Fig 3 Also elaborated the conventional type cell layout. The cells are the separate type for each operation. It can be clearly understood that extra manpower is required & their movement is complicated & more as compared to the above-said invention.

CLAIMS

The present invention focuses on reducing the cycle time of part making process & provides the finished product with the desired quality standard. All operation are linked to each other which makes the movement of material less complicated thus benefited in saving of cycle time.
The automated cell has been designed in such a manner so that reliability on manpower can be avoided. Therefore transport of material within the cell is being carried out by the low-cost automation system such as gravity conveyer's arrangements. This system also ensured the transportation of unfinished products with the cell layout ineffective & fast manner.
Robots are also being used to carry the unfinished tubes to the respective operations & this all can be done automatically. The automated layout is programmed to perform a task over and over again, the accuracy and repeatability compared to an employee are far greater. This also reduces the confusion of variants & provides the reliability & repeatability of product.
In particular, production and quality control is enhanced. Quality parameters and control procedures can be dovetailed to the particular requirements of the product being produced as specified by OEM's. Control is enhanced by the usage of programmed robots. This system can easily incorporate quality checks and verification to reduce the number of out-of-tolerance parts being produced while allowing for statistical process control that will allow for a more consistent and uniform product.
The cell is designed to keep in mind that it follows Lean manufacturing concept which benefited in extended to inventory, scheduling and production control. The functional layout presents severe scheduling and inventory control difficulties.
The wide variation in production requirements is controlled. The layout is the Cellular type which is often simpler and less expensive than conventional type manufacturing cells. These types of cells also share equipment and thereby reduce duplication. Certain operations can remain centralized. The system also allows simpler scheduling approaches such as kanban and broadcast.
As there are no separate cells for all operations, thus it benefits include those from material handling. This optimized cell also has more benefits like fewer moves, shorter travel distances, and simpler route structures add up to impressive savings. These characteristics also contribute to savings in inventory, coordination, and quality. The cellular layout also reduces the queuing, delays, tracking effort, and confusion that accompany the material movement. Travel distances are shorter in the cellular layout.
In addition to reducing the cost of long moves, this improves communication and often enables visual control systems. Complex routings are characteristic of conventional type cells. Many products and components visit multiple work centers in multiple sequences. This, in turn, necessitates complex process plans and extensive documentation. In conventional manufacturing layouts which have variable route

structures since many products move in so many different directions. This necessitates costly handling devices such as fork trucks or Automated Guided Vehicles that can accommodate such variable route structures. However, this layout, by contrast, has simpler and more stable route structures that may allow simple and cheap handling devices such as gravity conveyors & Robots.
The customer wants improved quality and this is an obvious benefit to both customer and supplier.
i. Customers also want the faster response to unusual requests for customized products or expedited delivery. Thus this cell layout is capable to do faster and more reliable average deliveries that make their tasks easier. The manufacturing cell allows manufacturers to deliver small quantities reliably without holding large inventories. The inherent quality improvements also find their way to appreciative customers.