Design, development and test of a novel broach for long polypropylene tubes

Polymers are frequently used for a variety of applications in industry. One relevant field is plastic tubing. As plastic tubes are manufactured from thermoplastic material through hot-extrusion their dimensional accuracy is only moderate. Wherever high accuracy on tube diameters and roundness are required, the conventional production techniques reach their limits and more complex technologies are needed. Known approaches from metal machining are deep hole drilling and internal broaching. However, machining processes with chip removal on polymeric materials are not so common. Therefore, the authors studied cutting operations of polypropylene experimentally. Based on their findings they designed and built an internal broach for the machining of polypropylene tubes. Finally, the authors tested their developed broaching tool in a relevant industrial environment. The tool not only fulfills the dimensional machining requirements but also solves the present chip evacuation problem in a unique way. It enables free cutting through the whole operation and creates continuous straight chips with no need for chip breakers. Consequently, the timely cleaning step, required in traditional broaching, can be eliminated, which reduces the lead time significantly. Furthermore, the set of materials allows dry broaching. Coolant is not necessary. This leads to less waste, a cleaner production line, and avoids damage through aggressive liquids. Lastly, their design ensures that no loss of dimension occurs when resharpening the tool.