On-Site Flange Facing Machine

Is this something that will respond to the use of a plasma cutter on a radius bar, out-of-the-box?

Yes. A plasma cutter can also very well be mounted on the proposed trolley for profile cutting in circular or linear form.

Good application idea for the same product. Thank you.

If you can provide yr mail ID , I could send a concept drawing of my thoughts on subject. Though the idea germinated about 10 weeks back , I have put in some thoughts before saying it aloud. Some small points still need to be ironed-out before I stat investing in its prototype.

Sorry Sir. My reply to a Iyn re. his every day activities was mistakenly sent to you. No offence meant. Regret and request to un-read same if it has been felt offending.

I respect your views on the thread.

I interpret PW Slack and Lynn by meaning this is something best suited to be given to a specialized third party contractor. I must say I agree, if you have the experience and the tooling its a walk in the park. BUT if not you will almost surely make some very expensive mistakes on your way to mastering this job.

Not to assume you cant do it, anyone can. But in some tasks its best to weigh the advantages over the dis-advantages of an undertaking.

This is like line boring a large medium speed engine, by the time you tool up for a one off job and invest all your time in the undertaking you will find you have payed many times what a specialized contractor would have charged for the service.

Tim

Thanks Tim.

I have 3 faces to be machined of 9 Mtr size and have recieved about 1 enquiry every month (for a pair of faces) ranging from 4 to 6 Mtrs as a norm. Hence the investement in thougth and action has some basis.

U were correct to compare the process envisaged to a Boring job.

U opined that the project be given to a third party contractor.

Am sure I have more of a stake in this than anybody else and then nothing in life is free or devoid of a profit motive - in cash or kind or emotional. Why not me try then.

The motive for the discussion was to try find some technical opinion/solutions to the proposed idea. Commerce can , for the time being, take a back seat.

You should pay someone for this service.

I searched for, "field flange facing machines for large pipe" and got results. You can too.

What do you do in your everyday life Mr.Slack.

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What do you do in your everyday life Mr.Iyn.

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You have a very interesting challenge. If I understand what you are proposing, you want a machine that would clamp to a flange face and machine a flat spot on the face, either underneath itself between the clamped area or with an overhung cutterhead. It would then move or be moved to the next section of the flange and repeat the cutting process. The cycle would be repeated enough times to work all the way around the flange to finish the facing process.

This sounds entirely possible, with the "BUT" being it will need some pretty sophisticated controls to maintain accuracy. By the way, what is your tolerance spec for flatness on these huge flanges? What is the application? Some sort of hydro power penstocks? Bolting two halves of a submarine together?

I would presume the control system would consist of a rotating laser that defined a plane parallel to the desired finished face of the flange. This reference plane would be sensed by the trolley and the trolley would have to be able to adjust itself in 3 axes to render its cutting plane parallel with the reference plane. This would have to happen after each time the trolley moved and re-clamped itself down. The milling cutterhead would also have to adjust itself to maintain the exact desired offset to the reference plane.

The job would get easier once you have enough new flange face machined to clamp the trolley to--presumably you would be clamping to a precision machined face and adjustments to stay with the laser reference plane would be minimal.

The moving, clamping, aligning and milling would take place in segments all around the flange face. Hopefully, when one machined their way around the whole flange, the alignment of the last section machined would precisely match the elevation of the first section machined!!

I would expect that the laser reference system would have to have a resolution of about one order of magnitude (10 times) better than the desired machining tolerance...maybe closer to 100 times better. This should not be difficult to achieve with modern laser alignment equipment. I am assuming that the flanges are stiff enough to minimized deflections due to machining forces, as to resurface a flange would require fairly minimal material removal.

I am also assuming that the flange is sufficently "rough" that trying to machine while moving the trolley would not be a good idea if you are considering a general purpose machine that can be brought to many different flanges that may be in varying degrees of disrepair and with diffent levels of corrosion damage. Therefore, the trolley would be clamped in place and precisely levelled before machining on precision slideways that are part of the trolley.

You have an interesting, fun and potentially rewarding idea. This is a very good example of mechatronics--the marriage of mechanical engineering with sophisticated electronics.

Jon.

Thanks for your response, Jon.

Your reply is in-line with conventional 'On-Site' machine from SLM.

My concept is very much different and new.

My eqpt is not bolted/fixed to any surface and nor does it do the machining operation in segments. This is all in SLM epqt. They use lasers for alignment from a centre , create an artificial platform etc etc. That is very cumbersome , heavy and expensive and is limited in its range to the length of its radial arm.

I am trying for something more universal and easy.

Are these flanges pre assembled on the pipes? Otherwise I would have thought especially for straight sections that the section flanges are aligned whilst loose on the pipe then tack welded in position. A short section of pipe with an accuratly aligned flange could be used as a template.Use ultra sonic or lazer measuring tools to confirm main pipe alignment.

If the pipes are managable on site sub arc welding can be done with the pipes on rollers.

However if you are breaking in to existing sections the welding will have to be done manualy using pipe line welders.

I realise thie above is not directly pertinant to your origonal query but thought it might have some merit in an optional approach.