<strong>Tube-drawing with a floating plug </strong>

Tube drawing with a floating plug is a widely used process for the manufacturing of precision tubes. A sketch of tube drawing with a floating plug is shown in Figure 1

(to see figure, choose link at the bottom of this page)

Figure 1 Sketch of the tube drawing process with a floating plug.

 

To start the drawing a) the plug is inserted in the tube and a dent is made in the tube behind the plug, b) the tube front end is tapered in order to make it possible to put the front end of the tube trough the die. The dent in the tube behind the plug is necessary in order to bring the plug in the right position in relation to the die (the position shown in Figure 1); without the dent the plug will be pushed ahead of the die. This way of staring the drawing process gives rise to production problem. If the dent in the tube is too big the tube will fracture and if the dent is too small the plug will not be brought into the right position.

A new drawing principle has been developed. Using this new principle, it is not necessary to make a dent in the tube to bring the plug into the right position.

A patent covering the new drawing principle has been applied for. The new drawing principle will be tested in collaboration with an industrial company.

Joachim Danckert, Benny Endelt