All-electric tube bending machines from Unison are helping FMC Technologies, supplier of subsea tree hydraulic control systems for wellheads, to substantially reduce build times and multiply its manufacturing capacity. Six sites worldwide now use Unison tube bending machines in a new production method pioneered by FMC employees in Norway and Scotland.
FMC used to plan the routes for the hydraulic tubing runs that interconnect the valves and other component parts of the subsea trees and then fabricate the custom tubular part shapes as the trees were being built. This process slowed down the build cycle and limited the total number of trees that could be assembled in the company’s sophisticated system building cells.
The company decided to investigate the use of 3D modelling of tubing, which would allow the tubing system required for subsea tree orders to be designed and bent in advance of system building and then delivered to the manufacturing cells ready for immediate assembly. As part of this process re-engineering initiative, FMC also purchased a Unison tube bending machine with servomotor-based actuation to provide a complete CAD/CAM solution.
Unison’s advanced all-electric architecture was preferred over the more traditional hydraulically powered bending approach because of the greater precision and inherent repeatability that it supports, which allows tubular part shapes to be bent right first time, thereby avoiding the generation of scrap. This is ideal for the subsea tree production environment, which often demands tubing parts with unique shapes. FMC fabricates these as a single batch for each tree project. The tubular materials being bent are often very expensive alloys such as Super-Duplex and Inconel 625, so avoidance of scrap is a major saving.
FMC selected Unison as its bending machine partner after talking to numerous machine manufacturers, primarily because of the company’s willingness to engineer a bending process to meet FMC’s precise needs. Unison worked closely with FMC to develop and streamline the tubular part manufacturing process. Stages included automating the transfer of data from its CAD system and simplifying the subsequent part shape programming process. Unison also supplies benders complete with application-specific tube washing machines, which ensure that tubular parts are provided to FMC’s assembly bays clean and ready to weld. This minimises any welding failures.
Using the new process, the time required for tubing assembly in FMC’s cells has fallen by around two thirds, with the additional advantage of introducing a standardised process with a consistent quality that negates possible human error or fatigue.
“The new tube bending process is a win-win solution for our business as it provides us with a highly consistent and repeatable manufacturing process and is considerably faster than before. This boosts our productivity and shortens delivery times to our customers,” said Richie Barker, global manufacturing specialist at FMC Technologies. Unison’s Steve Haddrell added, “We are very proud to be selected for this project as the consequences have been far-reaching. Our machines are now an integral element of a design-to-manufacturing strategy that is helping one of the world’s best known oil and gas companies to maintain its leading position in a highly competitive market.”
FMC Technologies has now rolled this production methodology out to other FMC sites around the world and produces tubing for subsea trees using Unison machines at locations in Angola, Brazil, Norway, Scotland, Singapore and the USA.
For more information please contact Alan Pickering, Unison, +44 17 2358 2868, enquiries@unisonltd.com, www.unisonltd.com
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