Industrial Hoses

Further automation

Mandrel-built reinforced rubber hoses are manufactured in a semi-automated process on hose manufacturing lathes. The hose mandrel is rotated and the material carriage moves from one side of the mandrel to the other side. The movement of the carriage is coordinated with the rotation of the mandrel whereby the carriage is positioned under a specified angle so that the desired pitch and coverage are obtained. Loading and replacing of material spools to the carriage is done manually. The materials are manually cut and attached at the start and end of the hose, where they are typically folded over a metal end coupling.

TANIQ has developed solutions for further automating the manufacturing of reinforced rubber hoses, whereby the materials are automatically loaded to the machine and are automatically attached and cut. If a material spool empties halfway the product, the machine automatically picks up new material and continues where it had finished. These systems have been developed for automatic attaching and cutting of (textile reinforce) rubber sheets and tapes. TANIQ is also developing systems for automatic application of metal helix wire. Further automation of the industrial hose manufacturing process results in shorter production times. Furthermore, the product and process knowledge will be embedded in the systems, which makes it less dependent on the skill of the workers and introduces higher product consistency. Having an automated process which is captured in systems enables to create global quality standards. Finally, the automated process provides a safer working environment.

The technology is successfully applied for manufacturing of dredging hoses from ID400mm-ID800mm up to 12m long, having a 75 bar burst pressure. TANIQ is now developing similar solutions for smaller diameter industrial hoses having ID’s from 50mm to 300mm and lengths up to 40m.  

Improved Design

TANIQ can automate the existing manufacturing process using rubberized textile sheets as reinforcement or develop an alternative design and manufacturing process based on using single end cords as reinforcement. In the first case, the hose design will be similar as the current design, but the extended automation will result in a constant high quality and greater consistency between the hoses.

The use of single end cords for the reinforcement structure enables to place the individual cords more accurately, and to create a continuous wound reinforcement layer with integrally wound flanges/couplings. This enables to optimize the reinforcement structure, saving material. Furthermore, it eliminates the manual steps in the coupling area for cutting and attaching of the textile sheets.