Design and exploration of fixtures for circular tube sheets
Sliding Aluminum Door,Aluminum Doors And Windows,Aluminum Door Design,Folding Aluminum Door Lemon Building Material Co., Ltd. , https://www.lemonbuilding.com
September 20 07:06:19, 2025
After the expansion tube and other processing steps, the tube sheet undergoes significant elastic deformation, and in some cases, plastic deformation may also occur. This not only requires reworking the surface of the flange seat but also increases the labor hours needed for the tube sheet. Moreover, such deformations can lead to serious safety issues once the equipment is put into operation. Therefore, it is a critical research topic to minimize or avoid the elastoplastic deformation of the tube sheet in order to meet engineering safety standards. In practical production, the use of fixtures is one of the most direct and effective methods. This article focuses specifically on fixtures designed for circular tube sheets.
From the perspective of domestic enterprises, many existing fixtures are designed to clamp only a specific model of circular tube sheet. While these clamps have a simple structure and perform well, their limitations are quite evident. Since the fixture consists of two separate parts, and the clearance between the fixture and the heat exchanger is very tight, it becomes challenging to clamp using the Roots vacuum unit. Additionally, the plastic deformation of the tube sheet makes it extremely difficult to remove the fixture, often leading to damage to the heat exchanger during disassembly. More importantly, these fixtures are not versatile—they require a different tool for each type of tube sheet, which significantly increases production costs and extends the manufacturing cycle. This has long been a major challenge for manufacturers, hindering efficient industrial production.
To address this issue, a new universal manifold fixture has been designed. The author developed a novel type of universal tube clamp for circular tube sheets, which has shown excellent results in both application and real-world production. This fixture uses a top clamping plate, a bottom clamping plate, and two side clamping plates, with four equally divided clamping sections placed on corresponding support plates or slides. The top and bottom clamps can be horizontally adjusted and moved, while the side clamps can slide vertically and be precisely positioned. Unlike traditional clamps made from rigid metal materials, which cannot adapt to different tube sheet sizes due to their fixed arc radius, this new design offers greater flexibility and versatility. As a result, it eliminates the need for multiple specialized fixtures, improving efficiency and reducing costs in the manufacturing process.