Pipe cutting & EtchingIan Mercer, Harold Fox, Richard French

RAL WP4 Face to Face meeting 20th March 2012

We have looked into different ways to cut the tube in situ, but with the room available this has been a problem, spinning tools creates dust and debris and still leaves a burr.The room available stops us from developing the laser to go round the tube.Hand tools deform the tube with the wall being so thin and the material being hard.

Our solution is to cut the tube with a laser in a cabinet, but you have to turn the tube, so the tube will need to be cut to exact size and bent afterwards in the correct place within 2mm, but with experience and practise we are confident this can be done.

The laser we have been advised to use is a 20W pulse laser,This can also etch on our serial numbers for identification.The cost for all the equipment including back up support is 30K, this includes cutting the tube trials and making sure our welding process is not affected, training and support, we will be given a full working system to suit our needs.

Ratchet cutter.The RC-375 - rynite handle and bodycuts tubing from 1/8" to 3/8" (3.17mm to 9.52mm

We could develop this tool to take our tube size, and use it for cutting the pipe in situ if needed, which we will only need to do a few times when we need to take a stave out when it is broken.

Summary

• Is 30K too much?• This solution will give a clean precise cut

without affecting the tube.• The identification etching will be permanent • Unlike the sticky labels.• Any better ideas or designs welcome.