Measurement and Control of a Straightening Process for Seamless Pipes

This paper deals with an automatic curing process for out-of-straightness of terminal ends of seamless pipes. The developed curing process is composed of a measuring stage and a controlling stage. In the measuring stage, the out-of-straightness pattern of each pipe is measured automatically, then reference pressure points and press strokes are determined to minimize the sum of squares of deflection angles. In the controlling stage, elastic springback of the pipe is predicted by an observer using the calculated press stroke, on-line measured values of reactive force, and deflection of the pipe. Through a series of experiments, the validity of the proposed process was verified.