Strongsville, Ohio, USA, February 27, 2017 – Rafter Equipment Corporation has shipped a new RT-2000S strip entry table, HFI weld squeeze box, and double-sided turkshead straightener to a North American tube producer. The equipment will replace equipment on a Yoder Manufacturing QVW-250 tube mill that was not robust enough for the tubular products being produced.

 

RT-2000S Strip Entry Table
 

RT-2000S HFI Weld Squeeze Box (3-Roll)
 

RT-2000S Double-Sided Turkshead Straightener with 2-Axis Motorized Adjustment

The strip entry table was updated to utilize common parts from the company’s popular idle side roll stand design. The unit’s guide roll blocks now slide on bushed rods that allow mill scale and dirt to fall away and be more easily cleaned. The adjusting screws are made of stainless steel with the center portion protected from contamination by a telescoping screw cover.

The HFI weld squeeze box has a familiar 3-roll arrangement but incorporates the company’s latest heavy-duty, push on center weld box design. The design has been a popular retrofit item since its introduction in 2015.

Finally, the turkshead straightener is a double-sided version for straightening and de-twisting of both round and rectangular tubes. The unit includes removable faceplates for enhanced quick-change possibilities and 2-axis remote adjustment of the entry faceplate. The motorized adjustment allows for straightness corrections to be made from a location downstream of the turkshead. Position feedback is accomplished using linear displacement transducers (LDTs). ​

UPDATE April 13, 2017: Customer states “The new equipment is awesome. Doing great.”
UPDATE June 13, 2017: Customer states “The newly installed Entry Guide, Weld Box and Turks Head are performing well above our expectations. We had no idea that these upgrades would make that much difference …”