Method of making precursor hollow castings for tube manufacture

Abstract

A tubular formation technique utilizing centrifugal casting incorporating a moveable launder system to deliver molten alloy along an extended length within a centrifugal caster to form a hollow tubular precursor of extended length. The technique is adaptable to all alloy systems but may be particularly suited for so called “hard alloys” that are susceptible to substantial work hardening or are difficult to extrude.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims benefit of and priority from U.S. Provisional Application 60 / 862,056 filed Oct. 19, 2006 the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]The present invention relates generally to the field of hollow tube manufacture and more particularly to the field of centrifugal casting of elongate hollow tube precursors adaptable for flow forming or other treatments.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]It is well known to form tubes from materials such as aluminum and magnesium using extrusion techniques or seam welding rolled sheet stock. Tubes of such materials may also be formed by drawing a hollow blank over a mandrel or flow forming an extrusion formed precursor over a mandrel. While such techniques for forming tubes may be suitable for many materials, they may be difficult to apply to alloys such as high ductility aluminum alloys that exhibit substantial work hardening or to...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

While such techniques for forming tubes may be suitable for many materials, they may be difficult to apply to alloys such as high ductility aluminum alloys that exhibit substantial work hardening or to magnesium alloys that do not exhibit good hot deformation behavior unless extremely low extrusion speeds are utilized.

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