Dual pipe manufacturing cell
AssigneeAdvanced Drainage Systems, Inc.
InventorsRoy E. MOORE, JR., Dan SWISTAK, Adam MILLER, Randy KOLBET, Bryan COPPES, Jeremy FRAZIER
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A corrugated pipe manufacturing cell is configured to produce multiple corrugated pipes in parallel. The manufacturing cell may comprise an extrusion system that is capable of providing multiple independently regulated flows of plastic piping material to multiple die heads. The multiple die heads may feed a set of mold blocks having dual cavities for forming he multiple corrugated pipes. The pipe manufacturing cell may be converted between a first mode for producing large diameter single corrugated pipes, and a second mode for producing smaller diameter, plural corrugated pipes.
Claims25
A pipe manufacturing cell, comprising:
- an extrusion system;
- a corrugator comprising a plurality of multi-pipe mold blocks, each multi-pipe mold block comprising a first cavity having a first corrugated molding surface and a second cavity having a second corrugated molding surface;
- a first pipe die head coupled to the extrusion system and configured to provide a first flow of pipe material to the first cavities of the plurality of multi-pipe mold blocks;
- and
- a second pipe die head coupled to the extrusion system and configured to provide a second flow of pipe material to the second cavities of the plurality of multi-pipe mold blocks,
- wherein the first pipe die head and the second pipe die head are configured to provide the first and second flows of pipe material simultaneously.
A pipe manufacturing method, comprising:
- providing a flow of pipe material from an extrusion system to a corrugator, the corrugator comprising a plurality of single-pipe mold blocks, each of the plurality of single-pipe mold blocks comprising a corrugated mold surface,
- corrugating a pipe by the corrugator using the plurality of single-pipe mold blocks;
- replacing the plurality of single-pipe mold blocks with a plurality of multi-pipe mold blocks in the corrugator, each of the plurality of multi-pipe mold blocks comprising a plurality of corrugated mold surfaces;
- modifying the extrusion system to divide the flow of pipe material;
- providing the divided flow of pipe material to the plurality of corrugated mold surfaces of the multi-pipe mold blocks;
- and
- corrugating a plurality of pipes by the corrugator using the plurality of multi-pipe mold blocks.
A pipe manufacturing method, comprising:
- providing a divided flow of pipe material from an extrusion system to a corrugator, the corrugator comprising a plurality of multi-pipe mold blocks, each of the plurality of multi-pipe mold blocks comprising a plurality of corrugated mold surfaces, and
- simultaneously corrugating a plurality of pipes by the corrugator using the plurality of multi-pipe mold blocks.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.