The following are some basic knowledge about bending tubing and their uses:
What is a bending tubing?
The coil service uses a special machine to bend a section of tube into a spiral shape, similar to a coil spring on a car or a spring-like toy that children can go down stairs.
The finished product can be composed of a single coil or two or more nested coils, and can be made of various tube lengths, diameters and wall thicknesses. The diameter and pitch of the elbow can be customized.
How to do it
Four machines
There are several types of machines that can be used for coiled tubing. One type uses a rotating drum that draws relatively short tubes around it. The tube is guided perpendicular to the main elbow or transversely through a separate roller to form a spiral.
tubing bender tubing bending machine
The two machines in the picture are the profile bending machines produced by BIT for the construction of a tower company in Malaysia and the UAE Exhibition Hall for pipe bending.
The second type, the profile bending machine (also called section bending machine or tube bending machine), is a manually operated machine that uses two rollers to guide the tube, while the third roller applies force to produce the bend. Using lateral force, spirals can also be produced.
The third type is called a spiral propeller pitch bending tubing bender, which is similar to a manual three-roll tube bender.
It pushes the tube through a set of three rollers to bend it, while the individual rollers form a spiral by bending at a later stage. Other machines use a similar method, but more rollers can better control the shape.
The fourth type of machine is called a double-coil bending machine, which pulls the tube onto a spindle while several rollers guide it into a spiral. Its operation is similar to a drum machine, but longer tubes can be used.
Summary
Most of these machines are hydraulically operated and computer-controlled, and can perform consistent bends in the tube-line without human error, although some profile bending machine (also called section bending machine or tube bending machine) require constant human control.
These machines are very expensive and complex, and it takes a lot of money and time to purchase the machines and properly train personnel to use them safely and effectively. Therefore, most elbows are completed through special metal manufacturing or elbow services.
What is the purpose of the coil tube?
In many different industries, coils and coil services have multiple uses.
Coils are commonly used as heat exchangers in the refrigeration and air conditioning industries. Compared with serpentine bends or conventional straight tubes, spirally coiled tubes can provide a larger surface area to better promote the heat exchange process between the refrigerant in the tube and the air around the tube or the ground.
This allows the refrigerant to quickly release or absorb heat, making heat exchange faster and more efficient. The coil can be used in the evaporator or condenser coil of the air-conditioning system, and is particularly suitable for being used as a ground loop in a geothermal system, buried in the ground or under water.
Coils, especially in the case of nesting, can make the ground loop take up less space.
Winemaking
Coils are also used for distilling alcoholic beverages, such as whiskey, vodka or brandy. In essence, in the distillation process, the impure fermentation broth is heated until the alcohol starts to evaporate or boil.
The alcohol vapor is separated from the water vapor and passed through a coil, which is located in a cold water container, where the vapor is cooled and condensed into pure alcohol.
In this application, the coil is called a worm and is usually made of copper.
Oil industry
Another use of coiled tubing is in the petroleum industry, where a large spool is placed in a special machine, untwisted and then pressed down or injected into an oil well.
Unlike traditional tubelines, it has no joints to connect, and there is no leakage, and because the tubeline is pushed, it usually bypasses obstacles that block the tubeline that is conveyed by gravity.
The installed tubeline can then be used to pump chemicals into the well to facilitate production or for wellway intervention, or the tubeline can be used for production purposes to bring oil or gas to the surface.
These are just a few of the many uses of coils. In many other industries, it is used as a heat exchanger or used to transport liquids or gases. As the oil industry continues to expand in the country, using more and more lateral drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies, the demand for coiled tubing will continue to grow.
What types of tubes can be coiled?
Material
Almost any type of ductile tube can be coiled, including steel, galvanized steel, stainless steel, copper and aluminum. Depending on the job, the diameter of the tube can range from less than one inch to several inches, and almost any length of tube can be coiled.
Tubes with extremely thin walls can be coiled, and the thickest tubes can be coiled 40 or more. Depending on the available equipment and specific job requirements, coils in flat or pancake styles, single spiral, double spiral, nested coils, coiled tube shafts, and many other configurations are available.
Profession
Coiled tubing is used in many different industries, and if your project requires a certain length of coiled tubing, you may have to rely on specialized tube coiling and bending services.
Coil and tube bending services have all the expensive special equipment and years of training, which are necessary to ensure that your project gets the high-quality coils required for completion. Although you can complete a small project without using the roll tube service, you will get better quality results by trusting professionals.
Sources:BEND-IT, INC