To meet customer demand, the customer runs a continuous line for its copper tube production. The line where the tube is cut to size should never stop – day or night – and if it does, the result of any downtime would be overtime costs, manpower issues and delivery delays.
The manufacturer has built its reputation for quality over decades, with rigorous testing processes at each stage of its production. Nowhere is that need for quality control more important than in the cutting of its copper tubes, where the presence of joints in the tube could cause potential issues later on. These must be identified before being shipped to customers for use in new builds or laid underground, for example.
The existing quality control processes for detecting joints involved sensors which had to be changed by an operator for each size of pipe – leaving the line open to delays and natural human error. The customer needed an automated solution for detecting joints, without stopping or slowing the line.
