Metal Pipe Forming Nozzle Cooling for Flow Path Heat Protection

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing forming systems face issues where high-temperature gas released after molding metal pipes affects members around the flow path, leading to heat influence.

Innovation Solution

A forming system that includes a gas supply portion with a nozzle and support portion, a drive unit for moving the support, a flow path for gas flow, and a cooling unit to cool the discharged gas, specifically positioned to minimize heat impact on surrounding components.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Temperature

If the metal pipe material is heated to enable expansion, then the metal pipe material becomes formable, but the gas becomes high-temperature and affects members around the flow path

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvemetal pipe material temperatureVSAvoidheat influence on flow path members
Core Design Contradiction:
TemperatureVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The harmful high-temperature gas is extracted from the flow path by providing a discharge portion that directs it to a discharge destination separate from the flow path, preventing heat influence on flow path members

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

A discharge portion is introduced as an intermediary component between the metal pipe material and the surrounding members, channeling the high-temperature gas away from the flow path to protect sensitive components

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Object-affected harmful factors

If a cooling unit is provided in the nozzle to cool the discharged gas, then heat influence on flow path members is suppressed, but the device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveheat influence on flow path membersVSAvoidnozzle structure complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Object-affected harmful factorsVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The cooling unit is merged with the nozzle structure, integrating the cooling function directly into the existing component rather than adding a separate cooling system, thus suppressing heat influence while minimizing increase in device complexity

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

3Object-affected harmful factors

If the cooling unit is positioned on the feed port side of the nozzle, then heat influence on the drive unit is reduced, but the cooling effectiveness on discharged gas may be reduced

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveheat influence on drive unitVSAvoiddischarged gas temperature
Core Design Contradiction:
Object-affected harmful factorsVSTemperature

Solution Approach 1:

The cooling unit is positioned at a specific location (feed port side) where it provides localized cooling to protect the drive unit from heat influence, creating different temperature zones at different positions along the gas flow path

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Applied Scientific Principles

This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.

Function Achieved in This Case

The system effectively suppresses heat influence on flow path members by cooling the high-temperature gas, ensuring minimal thermal impact on adjacent structures.

Implementation Method 1

a cooling unit that cools the gas discharged from the metal pipe material is provided in the nozzle

Methodology Applied
Scientific EffectHeat transfer: Conduction (thermal)

Data Source

PatentEP3960323B1Molding system
Publication Date: 2026.04.01 SUMITOMO HEAVY IND LTD
  • EP3960323B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3960323B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3960323B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Provided is a forming system that expands a heated metal pipe material to form a metal pipe. The forming system includes a gas supply portion that supplies a high-pressure gas to a heated metal pipe material to expand the metal pipe material, a discharge portion that discharges the high-temperature gas after expanding the metal pipe material, and a cooling unit that cools the gas flowing through the discharge portion.