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TRM International

Motion Control & Automation Manufacturers

Case Studies

Automatic Tube Drilling Machine

June 2008

The task was to make a completely new tube processing machine to suit the needs of a scaffolding pole manufacturer

Our Client "Bespoke Machines" designed all of the mechanics for the machine in house and requested a semi-custom solution from TRM for the control systems. The requirements of the job were to:Increase Throughput

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Simplify production

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Improve quality

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Reduce manufacturing costs Using a 3 axis TRM motion controller with MAP software, two servomotors of 4.1 Nm and one servomotor of 1.2 Nm, each with a 1000 PPR encoder, one TRM electrical cabinet, a set of pre-made cables between the electrical cabinet and controller and 3 proximity sensors for home position sensing, our client was able to build and control the machine to meet the desired specifications. By using the M otion A pplication P rogramme "MAP" our client was able to save money and time in software development. MAP can store up to 200 user programs in memory and each program can have
Photo of the 13 metres long machine and TRM 3 axis motion controller.Photos courtesy of Bespoke Machines Ltd. www.bespokemachines.com up to 500 lines (commands). The flexibility of MAP means that very complex programs can be created, in this case the program was 250 lines long. Photo of the 13 metre long tube drilling machine Photo of the drilling operation Photo of the finished product

How the machine works The number of holes, the angle and the length of the finished product can be programmed by the user. Using the servomotors, the machine starts gripping the 8.2 meter long tube and takes it to position. The end is sawn square and then repositioned to drill the first hole. After executing one hole, the tube is moved to position in order to drill the second hole. By using the servomotors the tube can be rotated any degrees in order to make holes at a different angle. Once all the holes have been drilled, the saw is activated and the tube is cut to length. The machine is run 24/7 and production is higher than expected.

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