Today's automotive industry consumes precision drawn and welded steel tubes in high volumes. The tubes are either processed in their own production facilities or are supplied as final and semi-final components from sub suppliers. Some typical components such as shock absorbers, gas springs, air bag container, etc. can be seen on charts 1, 2, 3 and 4. As the components are produced in large numbers and in series production, the market is very competitive. The automotive producers expect high quality with "zero-defects" to a low price. The procurement departments buy worldwide from their suppliers and the demand of quality is developing to the same levels. No supplier can effort to deliver defect or low quality products into their series production. Severe cost for product substitution in time or even cost for consequential damages may occur. This means for tube mills reliable and documented quality procedures, which refer to the material grades, properties and also tube parameters. New demands for high tensile and ductile material grades have to be fulfilled. Production systems such as hydro forming widen up the fields of tubular applications since new geometries and shapes can be easily achieved from a tubular blank. The reduction of component weight, which is also reducing the fuel consumption, must be considered with new material properties and strengths. This has strong impact on rolling-, welding- and finally also on drawing mills and their equipment, including finishing equipment. The pressure of the automotive industry on its suppliers offers nevertheless big chances for tube manufacturers being able to analyse their demand and the chances of replacing existing manufacturing chains, cutting down the customer's cost and maybe improving the quality.
展开▼
