A manufacturing apparatus for a metal pipe for forming into a metal pipe through a pipe manufacturing step, a welding step, and a sizing/reshaping step the pipe manufacturing step forming a metal strip material from a plate shape into a semi-circular cylindrical shape and further into a substantially circular cylindrical shape continuously in each forming step including a breakdown step, a cluster step, and a fin-pass step using a forming mill configured by arranging a plurality of forming tool stands in a line direction in which the metal strip material travels, the forming tool stand being configured by arranging a plurality of forming tools in the stand to form a required forming caliber allowing the material to pass therethrough, the welding step welding opposite end portions of the material in a width direction to each other by forming a butting contact therebetween, the sizing/reshaping step forming the material into a pipe having a required caliber and required straightness,
- the manufacturing apparatus comprising:
- a stand array line in which some or each of the forming tools used in each of the steps is held in a corresponding stand across position adjusting means allowing position adjustment of the forming tool relative to a forming target metal strip material (raw plate/raw pipe) using adjusted positional information on three-dimensional coordinates determined by defining a pass line (x-axis direction) as a horizontal plane covering a traveling direction (z-axis direction) of the material set in advance and a line center (y-axis direction) as a plane vertical to the pass line, and a forming mill in each of the steps composed of a forming tool stand available for forming the required forming caliber is arranged in the line direction in which the material travels, and
- in which a measurement sensor is arranged that allows measurement of a deformed shape value of the raw pipe containing at least any one of an outer peripheral surface shape, an inner peripheral surface shape, a vertical sectional shape, an outer peripheral length, and forming load at each stand in a forming tool stand array, the raw pipe being at a position identified on the three-dimensional coordinates in the vicinity of a forming tool in a required stand;
- storage means,
- the storage means including a step targeted for part or whole of the stand array line of conducting simulation analysis in advance on a course of forming from the metal plate into the metal pipe using the forming tool as forming processes in which a relative positional relation between the metal material itself during elastoplastic deformation of the material and the forming tool is grasped as a relation on the three-dimensional coordinates, and conducting simulation analysis on the course of forming as forming processes according to various types of ideal models on the basis of different dimensions or types of various metal plates, and
- a step of acquiring forming process data defining a correlation value at each or a particular forming tool stand in the stand array line targeted for the analysis between the deformed shape value of the raw pipe at an identified position on the three-dimensional coordinates in the vicinity of the forming tool in each stand and positional information about the three-dimensional coordinates of the forming tool in each stand on the basis of result of the simulation analysis on the forming processes according to the various types of ideal models on the basis of different dimensions or types of various metal plates,
- the storage means storing the various types of forming processes in advance acquired through the simulation analysis as the forming process data about a correlation value according to the various types of ideal models between a deformed shape value of the raw pipe and a forming tool position;
- calculation means,
- the calculation means including a measurement step of measuring a deformed shape value of the raw pipe being formed using the measurement sensor provided in the required stand or along the line during real operation using the stand array line targeted for the analysis,
- the calculation means making comparison with the forming process data according to the ideal models in the storage means and expecting a forming process for the forming target raw pipe and data about the forming process on the basis of a deformed shape value of the raw pipe being formed that is measured by the measurement step and information about the dimension or about the dimension and type of the forming target metal plate during the real operation;
- and
- output means,
- the output means expecting data about a forming process unique to the forming target raw pipe during implementation of the real operation using the stand array line targeted for the analysis, selecting stand positional information about a forming tool necessary for implementation of the expected unique forming process, and outputting adjusted positional information about a forming tool in the stand required to be adjusted, thereby performing the unique forming process.