General informations
The tube is pulled through a die which is smaller than the tube, so the end of each tube needs to be machined in order to fit. It will be ‘swaged’ or ‘tagged’ before drawing. Following this procedure, the tube end can pass through the die and is clamped to a drawing trolley, also called a pulley, which draws the tube through the die.
Swiss-Tube uses draw bench (straight draw) and bull-blocks (work in coils).
All drawing machines and toolings (dies and mandrels) are designed and manufactured by us.
Other drawing
- Rod drawing Rod drawing is the process that draws the tube with a mandrel inside the tube; the mandrel is drawn with the tube. The advantage to this process is that the mandrel defines the ID and the surface finish and has a quick setup time for short runs.
- Fixed plug drawing Fixed plug drawing, also known as stationary mandrel drawing, uses a mandrel at the end of the die to shape the ID of the tube. This process is slow and the area reductions are limited, but it gives the best inner surface finish of any of the processes.
- Floating plug drawing Floating plug drawing uses a mandrel that is not anchored whatsoever to shape the ID of the tube. The mandrel is held in by the friction forces between the plug and the tube.
- Tube sinking Tube sinking, also known as free tube drawing, reduces the diameter of the tube without a mandrel inside the tube.