Tubes of various sizes, styles, and lengths require bundling into hex shaped bundles and strapping prior to shipment.  Historically, this has been a time consuming, labor intensive task, which often was the bottleneck in this customer's production cycle.

Sage Automation designed a system to automate this entire process, from the tube cut off section, through to the exit conveyor for the banded bundles.

During the manufacture of oil industry drill pipe, various size couplings or "tool joints" are friction welded to the ends of prepared pipe stock.  These tool joints are cylindrical and can weigh up to 400 lbs.  With length variations from 15" to 48", these parts must be precisely inserted longitudinally into the chuck jaws of the welding machine.

One of the numerous processes required in the manufacture of oil industry drill pipe is known as an "upset." This is a forging press operation that is used to thicken the end portion of the pipe wall prior to welding on tool joints.  Heated pipe is inserted horizontally into the press die and moved through several die locations as the press cycles.

During the production of oil industry drill bits, raw bits must be transported from a 2000 degree furnace to a graphite press for final compression.  Sage Automation designed a custom robot to automate this process.

This system singulated raw tubes, inserted hanging spears, singulated coated tubes, extracted hanging spears, and ejected the finished tubes.

This robot forms bundles in a variety of configurations, sends the bundles through a supplied bander, and then buffers them for fork truck pickup.

This is a short simulation of a system that was delivered in 2008. The Gantry robot was designed to support two 38 ft pipes at one time, each weighing up to 3000 pounds.

The dual shuttle end of arm tool was used to minimize pipe exchange times. Additionally, integrated measuring light curtains where provided to enable the system to adjust its position during the insert, to compensate for variations in individual pipe straightness.