Welded Tube Mills or Welded Pipe Mills have been popular since modern flat rolled, or coiled, steel first made its way into the steel business more than a century ago.
The tube mill is really a series of individual machines starting with an uncoiler, straightener, shear and end welder – commonly known as the entry line. The forming mill consists of a break down section and forming section, usually consisting of three to six passes. Each pass is made up of an upper and lower arbor that contains roller die tooling which forms the steel strip gradually into a round shape. This process is carried on through the fin passes which get the newly formed tube ready to weld. In the weld box the tube is welded by a high frequency or solid state welder. The inner and outer bead may be removed, before the four-to-six stand sizing section, where tube is made dimensionally accurate, or formed further into a square or rectangle. The final process cuts the new pipe to length, where it can be bundled in a magazine.
Some of the top manufacturers we have inventoried include: Abbey Etna, Yoder, Mckay, Mannesman, Seuthe, Driestern, Oto Mills, Kusakabe, Nakata, Turek and Heller, and MTM.