PIPES AND TUBES

MANUFACTURING
AND
WIRE DRAWING
Pipes and Tubes can be manufactured by using the
following methods:
1. Piercing Method (Tube rolling) OR Mannesmann
process
2. Tube extrusion
3. Resistance welding (ERW)
4. High frequency welding
5. Tube Drawing(discussed as a part of wire
drawing)
Piercing Method (Tube rolling) OR
Mannesmann process
Seamless tubes are made in two stages:
1. Manufacture from round blank or billet of a
thick walled shell in a piercing mill.
2. Rolling of shell into a pipe of given diameter
and wall thickness.
• A heated round billet with its leading end centre punched,
pierced or drilled, is pushed longitudinally in between two
large convex shaped (tapered) rolls that revolve in the same
direction.
• Their axes being inclined at opposite angles of about 6° from
the axis of the billet, Fig. (a).
• As the billet is caught by the rolls and rotated, their inclination
causes the billet to be drawn forward into them.
• The reduced clearance between the rolls forces the billet to
deform into an elliptical shape.
• As the billet tries to rotate under high compressive forces
created by the rolls.
• The punched hole at the centre of the billet will tear open.
• The mandrel assists this action. As the billet rotates and feed
towards the mandrel, the tearing action is propagated along
the length of the billet forming a seamless shell (roughly
formed tube).
• Upon completion of the operation, the mandrel is forced out
of the shell.
• This piercing of the billet to form a rough tube is called
"Mannesmann process".
• The pierced shell is further processed
in a "plug rolling mill", (Fig. (b)), which
is a two- high reversing stand with a
series of round passes in the rolls.
• A short mandrel (plug) is held in the
centre of the pass by a long bar.
• The clearance between the mandrel
and the pass determines the wall
thickness of the rolled tube.
• This operation elongates the tube and
reduces the wall thickness.
• The tube is still in a rough state.
• Therefore, another operation,
called "reeling" is performed
between reelers and over a
mandrel as shown in Fig. (c).
• The reeling operation improves
the finish of the inside and
outside surfaces, eliminates
irregularities, scratches and out
of roundness, and decrease the
differences in wall thickness.
• Finally, a sizing operation is
performed between sizing rolls
without use of a mandrel.
• Fig. (d) The final operations of reeling, and sizing are
often conducted on cooled tubes in order to improve
their finish and size.
 TUBE EXTRUSION
• The method for extruding tubes is shown in Fig.

• It is a form of direct extrusion, but uses a mandrel to

shape the inside of the tube.
• After the billet is placed inside, the die containing the
mandrel is pushed through the ingot as shown in the
diagram.
• The press stem then advances and extrudes the
metal through the die and around the mandrel.
• The entire operation must be rapid, and speeds
up to 10 ft per second have been used in making
steel tubes.
• Low-carbon steel tubes can be extruded cold, but
for most alloys the billet must be heated to
around 2400 F.
 WELDED TUBES
• Welded pipes are made in two steps: forming
strip into a circular section and then joining
strips edges by welding.
1. Furnace butt welded pipe
2. Continuous furnace butt welded pipe
3. Electric resistance welding(ERW)
4. High frequency welding of tubes.
 Furnace butt welded pipe
• Both intermittent(Furnace) and continuous methods are
used in the butt welding of tubes.
• Heated strips of steel, known as skelp, which have the
edges bevelled slightly, are used so that they will meet
accurately when formed to a circular shape.
Intermittent (furnace)Butt Welding
• In the intermittent process, one end of the skelp is
trimmed to a V shape to permit it to enter the welding
bell, as shown in Fig.
• skelp heated to 1350 c.
• Hot skelps drawn out by of furnace by grasping
trimmed end with tongs,over the handles of
which welding bell is slipped.
• The tong is pulled by draw chain.
• This pulls skelp through the welding bell which
bends and folds the skelp along its longitudinal
axis to circular shape, forcing the edges into
contact.
• At the point of contact, the butt edges are welded
together due to pressure exerted by the bell.
• Welded pipe then transfer to sizing rolls.
Continuous furnace butt welding
•Continuous butt welding of pipe is accomplished
by supplying the skelp in coils.
•As the skelp enters the furnace, flames impinge
on the edges of the strip to bring them to welding
temperatures.
•Leaving the furnace, the skelp enters a series of
horizontal and vertical rollers which form it into
pipe.
• A view of the rollers, showing how the pipe is formed and
sized, is shown in Fig.
• As the pipe leaves the rollers, it is sawed into lengths which
are finally processed by descaling and finishing operations.
• Pipe is made by this method in sizes up to 3 inches in diameter
 Electrical RESISTANCE WELDING OF TUBES
(ERW)
• The principle of operation is to heat the edges by resistance
welding and then forge weld them together.
Procedure:
• Steel strip is received in wide coils and is slit into the correct
width required to form the finish product size.
• A train of pairs of rolls is used to form the cold strip to a
cylindrical shape and bring together the edges which are to
be welded.
• The welding head consists of two
insulated disc electrodes which are
fixed on either side of a wheel.
• One electrode remains on each side
of the seam to be welded.
• The two edges of the tube to be
welded are raised to welding
temperature by the passage of an
electric current across the joint as
the welding head presses down on
the seam.
• The located edges are pressed
firmly (i.e. forged together) by a
pair of pressure rolls.
• As the heated metal edges are pressed together, the
ends upset slightly. This excess metal is trimmed off.
• The welded tube is then passed through sizing rolls and
then cut to size.
Advantages
• As only the edges are heated, the tube possesses clean
accurate surface.
Applications
1. Electric resistance welding can make tubes in sizes up to
0.4 metre diameter.
2. Tubes can also be made from steels having around 0.3%
carbon.
ERW process for tube mfg.
 HIGH FREQUENCY WELDING OF TUBES
1. The frequency of current supply is about 400 kHz.
2. Voltage is higher.
3. Tube mill used is similar in both the processes.
4. The two edges to be joined are brought together in a V
of about 4 to 7 degrees.
5.Welding current is
introduced not through
disc electrodes but
through two water-
cooled probes which
make light contact on
either side of the joint.
6. The high frequency current pass from the 1st probe to
the one edge of V groove, then it passes to the other
edge of V groove. And then it flows to the 2nd probe.
Like this current circuit is completed.
7. The two edges to be welded are resistance heated by
the high frequency Current at a shallow depth, thus
creating a high effective resistance.
8. As the tube moves a little distance ahead, its two
edges are squeezed with forging pressure by weld (or
squeeze) rolls to produce the weld joint.
9. By forging action, metal and impurities are squeezed
out into external upsets, which may be cut off, leaving
smooth surfaces.
10. With high frequency welding, melting occurs,
whereas melting does not occur with low frequency
process (ERW). Therefore, in ERW considerable
deformation would be required to rupture oxide films
and give a good pressure weld.
 Wire /Rod/Tube : Drawing
• Drawing operations involve pulling metal through a die by
means of a tensile force applied to the exit side of the die.
• The plastic flow is caused by compression force, arising from
the reaction of the metal with the die. It is also called as a
indirect compression process.
• Starting materials: hot rolled stock (ferrous) and extruded
(non- ferrous).
• Material should have high ductility and good tensile
strength.
• Bar, wire and tube drawing are usually carried out at room
temperature, except for large deformation, which leads to
considerable rise in temperature during drawing.
• The metal usually has a circular symmetry (but not always,
depending on requirements).
Geometrical shape of die used for drawing
• Shape of the bell mouthed
entrance zone (2β angle)
causes hydrostatic pressure to
increase and promotes the
flow of lubricant into the die.
• β -half bell angle 40 °
• shape of conical (approach
angle α ) where the actual
reduction in diameter occurs.
• Half Approach angle α is 6 °
to 12 °
• The bearing region (land)
produces a frictional drag on the
wire and also remove surface
damage due to die wear, without
changing dimensions.
• The back relief allows the metal
to expand slightly as the wire
leaves the die and also minimizes
abrasion if the drawing stops or
the die is out of alignment.
Die material
• Very large die (for drawing
tubes and rod of large c/s
) is made of high carbon
steel or HSS. Steel case

• Moderate size of tungsten

carbide
Tungsten carbide
• Finest wire of (down to insert
0.05 mm) diamond die is
used.
Preparation of metal for wire drawing:-

 Hot rolled rod .

 Pickling, descaling
 coating and Lubricating :
 Copper coating, phospheting and then lubricating.
Mollifiable oils for wet wire drawing
Soap for dry drawing.
After pickling process rod is undergoes to swaging or
pointing of leading end is then drawn through the die.
• Wire drawing consists of pulling a metal wire
through a small circular opening called a die.
• This results in a stretching or elongation of the
material along with a reduction in cross sectional
area.
• The pulling force is limited by the strength of the
material: pull too hard and the metal will break.
• The force needed to pull the wire through the die
is determined by the extent of the reduction in
cross-sectional area: the larger the reduction, the
greater the force needed.
• Thus it can be seen that the maximum achievable
reduction in diameter is limited by the yield
strength of the wire.
• Yield strength depends on material
composition but typically the reduction in
area through a die is in the region of 20 to
40%.
• If a greater reduction is needed this must be
done by drawing the wire through a series of
dies, each one smaller than the one before.
• However, the plastic deformation experienced
by the metal as it is pulled through the die
tends to increase hardness and reduce
ductility.
• (Ductility refers to the ease with which metal can
be deformed.) As this will make it harder to
reduce the cross-section, it is often necessary to
perform an annealing process between
successive draws to improve the way the metal
deforms.
• On the other hand, the increased tensile strength
resulting from drawing is often seen as a very
desirable material property.
• Wire drawing for fine wire is done by passing
wire through many successive dies and in
between them driving rolls is required. Such a
arrangement called bull-block drawing bench.
• Rod drawing is done on chain drawing bench.
• Wire drawing is usually performed cold,
although there are some cases where metal is
drawn hot to improve ductility.
• Die lubrication is essential in cold drawing to
achieve a good surface finish as well to
maximize the life of the die.
Wire drawing terms:
Let, Do, Df , Lo and Lf are the original and
final diameter and length. Ao and Af are
original and final cross sectional area.
Drawing equipment
 Rod Drawing

Fig.Chain
draw bench
• End of rod is swagged first, lubricated and
then pass through die .
• At this end it is gripped by jaw of the
piler(drawing carriage) and the hook is
lowered to engage the moving chain.
• This drawing arrangement used in rod drawing
is called “chain draw bench” .
• The pull capacity of draw bench ranges from
10 KN to 1500 KN.
• Drawing speed may ranges 0.15 m/s to 1.5m/s
for larger to small size of rods.
Tube Drawing
• Hollow cylinder ,tube and pipes which are
made using piercing and rolling, extrusion are
usually finished by cold drawing process with
close tolerance and imparts required strength.
• To produce tube with thinner wall or smaller
diameter which is previously formed by above
processes.
 Classification of tube drawing
processes
• There are three basic types of tube-drawing
processes
1. Tube Sinking
2. Plug drawing
- Fixed plug
- Floating plug
3. Mandrel drawing.
A. Tube Sinking
B. Stationary plug
drawing
C. Floating plug
drawing
D.Moving mandrel
 Tube Sinking
• The tube, while passing
through the die, shrinks in
outer radius from the original
radius .
• Inside of tube is not
supported.
• So, Internal diameter is not
accurate and uneven. Also ,
the wall then thicken slightly.
 Stationary plug drawing

• Use conical plug to control

size/shape of inside
diameter requred.
• Use higher drawing loads
than floating plug drawing.
• Greater dimensional
accuracy than tube sinking.
• Increased friction from the
plug, limit the reduction in
area (seldom > 30%).
• can draw and coil long
lengths of tubing.
 Floating plug
• A tapered plug is placed inside the
tube.
• As the tube is drawn the plug and
the die act together to reduce
both the outside/inside diameters
of the tube.
• Improved reduction in area than
tube sinking (~ 45%).
• Lower drawing load than fixed plug
drawing. Due to low friction.
• Long lengths of tubing is possible.
• Tool design and lubrication can be
very critical.
 Moving mandrel

• Draw force is transmitted to

the metal by the pull on the
exit section and by the
friction forces acting along
the tube -mandrel
interface.
• minimized friction.