Profiling of tubes
OwnerAlan Mark Crawleyinventor
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Abstract
A method of, and apparatus for, profiling a tube to form at least one profiled product having a first open end and a second open end. The tube (30) is supported on a support (19) which supports the tube along at least a substantial part of the length of the tube corresponding to the product(s) to be formed. At least a portion of the tube is heated to form at least one heat-softened portion of the tube in the region(s) corresponding to the product(s) to be formed. A fluid pressure change (28) is applied to the region(s) of the tube corresponding to the product(s) to be formed to form at least one profiled product having a first open end, a second open end, and a predetermined shape with one or more three dimensional profile features.
Claims15
A method of profiling a tube to form at least one profiled product having a first open end and a second open end, comprising the steps of
- providing a thin-walled tube having a thickness between about 0.1 mm and about 0.5 mm and having a first open end and a second open end;
- supporting the tube on a substantially solid support along the entire length of the tube corresponding to the length of the product to be formed, said support containing at least one flow pathway;
- heating at least a portion of the tube while the tube is supported on the substantially solid support to form at least one heat-softened portion of the tube;
- and
- applying a fluid pressure change to the heat-softened portion of the tube via said flow pathway to form a profiled region of the tube, the tube defining a profiled product having a first open end, a second open end, and a predetermined three dimensional profile region.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.