from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
In the paper, the author presented the technological assumptions for the production of a helical metal expansion joint. Currently produced expansion joints have bellows or lens shapes. These types of expansion joint can only carry lateral, angular and axial deformations. A helical metal expansion joint is a new type of expansion joints that can compensate for torsional deformations of industrial pipelines, which are the result of the installed armature in the piping system. The authors presented a method of mechanically assisted laser forming, which was used as a manufacturing technology for this type of element. This technology combines laser heating of an element in the form of a pipe (implemented with a carbon dioxide laser along a given trajectory in order to plasticize the heating zone), with the simultaneous application of an external force, which is intended to plastic deform the element on its circumference. The carried out experiment consisted of the selection and control of the process temperature using an integrated optical pyrometer, based on which the laser power was controlled. According to the preliminary experiments, the compression speed of the element was selected. Compression was carried out using a mechanical actuator. During the process, the compression force that caused the deformation of the element was recorded. Experimental results obtained during the manufacturing of helical metal expansion joints are presented. Mainly, the results are presented and discussed, such as: obtained geometry, forces needed to manufacture the element, processing temperature, strain rate and others.
Keywords: Laser forming, metal expansion joints, laser treatment© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.