Peculiar properties of technological improvement and optimization of production costs of 3D-configuration pipes

The analyzes of the requirements to 3D-configuration pipelines production at the rocket and space industry enterprises is done. A review of different approaches to pipe bending technology (with heat treatment and without heat treatment) is carried out. The object of the study is the bending process and a universal bending machine for pipelines’ production of complex configuration. The article is divided into four sections, which consider the key factors, causing directly the effectiveness of the technological operation of pipeline bending of a complex 3D-trajectory. An overview of no-temperature shaping of the pipeline is given in the first section. The requirements to the technology, excluding: corrugation, flattening, stretching and thinning of pipeline walls during their bending, are considered. The actual regulatory documents and industry aerospace standards, regulating production of pneumatic and hydraulic pipelines are given. An example of calculating the minimal allowable bend radius of the pipe, depending on the diameter and thickness of the pipe wall, is given. The requirements to unification of the pipe size production and gaps are listed. The dependence of the maximal allowable internal pressure in the pipeline is shown. The requirements to equipment, used in pipeline bending and to the design of the pipe bending machine are considered. In the second section, the possibilities of temperature influence on the pipe bending process are viewed. The analysis of patent and technical literature and six possible methods of effective thermal effects are presented: heating of the whole pipeline length, narrow zone heating of the bend pipe place, water cooling with nitrogen in the pipe, laser-cooling of atoms of the pipes, application of the petroleum products on the place of heating of the pipe and using of modern fillers inside the pipe to change its temperature. In the third section the tasks of the development of a universal bending machine are set; the system of the algorithm of the universal bending machine operation is considered; the system of algorithm of the bending machine operating with CNC is shown. The General functional scheme of the bending machine and the sequence diagram of the equipment operation is given.