Automated Fabrication of Template Pipes

Fabrication of template pipes is one of the most time consuming and cost-intensive job routings in the ship-building
or plant engineering industry. The whole production process, starting with taking measurements of the planned pipe
course, making a pattern or wire mockup, processing the data of the pipe geometry, manufacturing the pipe, verifica-
tion of the fitting and ending with the final installation, is difficult and accompanied by high expenses and an extreme
time requirement.

The idea: Optimization of the job routing by means of automatization

With the SCOPELINK and the ROBOFIX system TRACTO-TECHNIK offers an econo-
mic and high-precise automated solution for the production of template pipes.
Both devices, which are singular in the world, were specially developed in order
to optimize the job routings when fabricating template pipes.

Exact measuring, precise manufacturing, installing and securing

The geometry of the template pipe is measured quickly and precisely on-site
(e.g. on board ship) by means of the 3D isometry system SCOPELINK. This
device consists of plug-in elements, which are built-in between two connecting
points (flanges or sleeves) according to the planned pipe course. By means
of a very rugged notebook and the included measuring software the model is
evaluated directly within the plant to be piped.

That way SCOPELINK ensures that a simultaneous visualization of the plan-
ned pipe course and computer-aided measuring of the associated pipe coor-
dinates can be realized on-site. For further processing without loss of time
the data can be sent to the pipeshop e.g. via internet or company network.

If the pipe has to be installed between two flanges, even the verification of
the fitting and welding of the flanges to the pipe can be done in the pipe
workshop. This tasks are enabled by the electromechanical 3D positioning
device ROBOFIX, which simulates the exact installation situation in the pipe
workshop. The system carries out a three-dimensional seek of two flanges
according to the on-site flange situation measured by SCOPELINK. The tem-
plate pipe just has to be positioned between the flanges and tacked to them.

Greater benefit by means of maximum pre-fabrication

The template pipe is transported to the jobsite with a maximum grade of
pre-fabrication. It only has to be mounted between the flanges. Because of
very high accuracies of both devices and the possibility to carry out collision
checks already during the measurement of the pipe isometry, all template
pipes measured and fabricated by SCOPELINK and ROBOFIX can be inserted
on-site at perfect fit.

If required the procedures described above can be parallelized, e.g. by
simultaneous usage of several SCOPELINK devices. All data is stored
in a database and available at a later time.

3D isometry device SCOPELINK

Outdoor Notebook

Fabrication of the template pipe,
e.g. on a TUBOTRON pipe bender

3D positioning device ROBOFIX

The schematic elucidates the combination and interaction of the separate devices
and machines, which are involved in the template pipe production process.

Advantages of this system solution for template pipe production opposite to the conventional way:

	The time required to measure a planned pipe installation can be reduced to less than 15 min.,
	Measuring, recording and documenting of a fitting pipe installation is done on-site,
	Data transfer between the site and the pipe workshop without any delay (e.g. via Internet),
	Avoidance of times and costs for fabrication and transport of wire models or iron mockups,
	An interface between the Scopelink measuring system and our pipe bending software allows of transforming the measuring data into fabrication data,
	Integrated interference controls prevent any collision between the pipe and the bending machine during the bending process and lead to increased planning and production efficiency,
	Elimination of fabrication errors because of very high system accuracies and an uninterrupted line of data transfer,
	Maximum prefebrication of all template pipes in the workshop (also for distantly measured pipes),
	Increase of competitiveness in the market place by means of economic template pipe production.

Automated Fabrication of Template Pipes

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