SAPA PRECISION TUBING WELDED TUBES Because welded tubes make the difference
ABOUT US SAPA WELDED TUBES SAPA WELDED TUBES, part of Sapa s Precision Tubing business area, is the clear market leader in the field of aluminium welded tube solutions for a wide spectrum of applications. Recognised worldwide as the most experienced company in developing and manufacturing high quality aluminium welded tubes, we aim to meet and surpass our customers expectations. Our worldwide network comprises 4 production plants and 5 sales offices located on 3 different continents. Customers benefit from this global footprint through efficient logistics, just-in-time delivery and local service. As our goal is to become your development partner in providing leading products, we keep in close contact with our customers located all over the world to assure we meet all specific requirements. A highly educated technical support team is well-integrated in every region and is highly interested in every aspect of your needs. By combining all our technical competence, we can use our shared knowledge in the search for tailor-made solutions for the ever-changing end-user challenges. Customers value us, as we continue to differentiate ourselves through expertise, a unique size range and the highest quality. HIGH SAPA STANDARDS As a member of the Sapa group, we live up to its Code of Conduct. It is a methodology for ethical business practices, that should be implemented by each employee within SAPA. As we make big and small decisions on a day-to-day basis, we must always ask ourselves whether those decisions adhere to the SAPA values and highest ethical standards. We believe it is our responsibility to abide by the local laws and regulations and to create a safe and healthy working environment for our employees and partners. That is why we keep high standards for environment, health, safety and quality. We are dedicated to deliver reliable products of the highest quality to our customers in a socially responsible way. Our purpose: Our purpose is to shape a sustainable future through innovative aluminium solutions. Our values: Trustworthy Entrepreneurship Customer first Accountability One Company - 2 -
ENVIRONMENT High environmental consciousness is a basic principle in our entire production process, that is why we are ISO 14001 certified at SAPA WELDED TUBES. Aluminium is often called the green metal as it is 100% recyclable with no downgrading of its qualities. As remelting aluminium takes far less energy than producing primary metal, we use secondary aluminium in our production processes where possible. Moreover, we have optimized our product packaging and go for nothing less than a fully recyclable product. Every box and every tube we ship can be fully recycled. HEALTH During our production process we continuously monitor our emissions to lower the impact on the health of our employees and the environment. We also check environmental requirements concerning air, soil, noise and odour. We do not only fully comply to the legal requirements but we also score much better than the most severe minimum risk levels. All our plants are OHSAS 18001 certified, which clearly shows our commitment to health and safety. SAFETY Safety has always been our concern: by having very good housekeeping and applying 5S, we create a safe working environment for our employees and contractors. This does not only lead to a safe and clean working environment, but also to a better organized production environment, more room for improvements and less occupational illness. We have our own Safety Management System and behaviour-based safety trainings to make sure that our efforts done on safety are sustainable. A safety training is an important part of SAPA WELDED TUBES introductory program for new employees and regular safety courses are obligatory for all operators. QUALITY SAPA WELDED TUBES applies the internal policy of Genesis: continuous improvement as a philosophy throughout the whole organisation. As we want to be the best at what we do today and tomorrow, Genesis is very important to us. It points out the right path for addressing customer challenges and to solve minor problems with regards to safety, quality, production and services. Our objective is to offer a unique solution for our customers and to have an excellent process control by eliminating waste. In combination with the proposals of our own employees, we always search for improvements, in order to offer the highest possible quality to our customers. All our plants are subject to DIN ISO 9001 and TS 16949. Our dedicated quality team is standing by to assist our operators in order to guarantee the constant high quality our customers expect. - 3 -
APPLICATIONS HVAC&R PRODUCTS Climate and temperature control is becoming increasingly important in our world of today. Keeping fruits and vegetables fresh in grocery stores, climatization in shopping centres, removing heat from industrial processes, temperature control in laboratories,... Our daily life is relying on climate and temperature control technology. SAPA WELDED TUBES offers all customers innovative solutions for the production of commercial and industrial heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration applications. Each member of our team is dedicated to becoming number one in the provision of welded tubes for this ever-growing market. We offer our customers exceptional quality through technical support, in-house developed high-strength alloys (with or without brazing clad layer), reliable end products meeting the strictest tolerances, on-time deliveries and much more. The future will belong to aluminium micro-channel heat exchangers, facilitating the design of smarter and energy saving solutions for HVAC&R. The micro-channel heat exchangers were first designed for the automotive industry, where they have been used for the last 25 years. - 4 -
ALUMINIUM IS THE SOLUTION! Aluminium is one of the most suitable materials to use in HVAC&R applications. The HVAC&R industry has been using copper in their applications for centuries but have now realized, that substituting this copper with aluminium offers many benefits: Aluminium is a cost-efficient raw material - two to three times cheaper than copper - and due to its material properties, it lasts longer than other materials when used in an appropriate way. As aluminium, unlike copper, is immune to formicary corrosion, we can offer our customers more cost efficient and durable solutions. Another advantage of aluminium is its high strength-to-weight ratio. An aluminium tube based heat exchanger only weighs half as much as its copper equivalent. Together with the narrow tolerances we offer, it reduces the weight and size of HVAC&R applications such as refrigerators, evaporators, condensers, heaters, radiators and air and oil coolers significantly. This creates lower logistic costs, less labour, more compact end products, reduced refrigerant charge,... Aluminium is also preferred over copper because of its formability. When the right alloy is chosen, the aluminium welded tubes can be formed into a broad range of designs. The welded tubes can be delivered with inner grooves and patterns, increasing the inner tube surface and improving thermal conductivity. - 5 -
APPLICATIONS INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS Over many years, SAPA WELDED TUBES has obtained a unique know-how and experience in providing high frequency aluminium welded tubes for a broad range of industrial applications. For any market category, from basic product to innovative design, our tubes always offer the solution you are looking for. Our highly competent team of developers will assist you in selecting the right alloy and temper for your application. With our variety of strong alloys with extremely high mechanical values, we can guarantee our customers the smooth and reliable processing and fabricating they expect. - 6 -
The corrosion resistance of our specific alloys and the excellent process ability and formability of our welded tubes are highly appreciated by our customers. Where other materials may fail due to technical limits (temper, elasticity, corrosion, ) the welded tubes can be processed and engineered in quite extreme ways and still meet required strength, high quality finish and specifications. Knowing that our aluminium tubes can be offered with very tight tolerance levels on diameter, thickness and length, our welded tubes with an excellent weight-strength ratio are a light solution to our customers needs. Garden equipment Forestry tools Desalination plants Orthopedic supports Outdoor equipment Sports tools Child care Greenhouses Safety equipment Cleaning equipment Solar structures Camera tripods Ladders and scaffolding Camping equipment Furniture Bicycles Shopping strollers Ski poles Roller blinds And many more - 7 -
APPLICATIONS AUTOMOTIVE PRODUCTS The world of automobiles is developing constantly and car designers keep innovating to increase the vehicle s power, efficiency, comfort and safety, all while producing fewer emissions and consuming less. Our goal is to work closely with our customers in the automotive industry and help them in their search for solutions that meet these and future challenges. STRUCTURAL APPLICATIONS Modern car designers especially choose to work with SAPA WELDED TUBES for compact vehicles with spacious interiors: characterized by formability and close geometrical tolerances, our welded tubes are ideal to meet these tight package requirements. Our aluminium welded tubes can be formed into different shapes for typical structural applications such as chassis sub frames, engine cradles, drive shafts, body frames, instrument panel beams, radiator supports, dash elements, shock absorbers and pistons for air-suspension systems. - 8 -
HEAT EXCHANGE APPLICATIONS Our expertise extends across the full range of heat exchange in automotive applications. We offer solutions for heat exchangers for both engine cooling and air-conditioning systems, not only in passenger cars and motorcycles but also for commercial and off-highway vehicles. Historically, all these applications were produced using copper/brass tubes. Today, more than 95% of automotive heat exchangers are made of aluminium. Where initially this substitution was made due to rising copper prices, it quickly became obvious that aluminium also has many technical advantages. Because of its light weight, excellent corrosion resistance, and very good brazability, aluminium is now the material of choice in the automotive industry. To keep up with the drive for more fuel efficiency and the necessity to drastically decrease emissions, modern vehicle designers need to innovate on a day-to-day basis. With our expertise, we participate in these efforts by supplying welded CACtubes equipped with internal turbulators. In radiator development, we support our customers initiatives in reducing the size and weight by reduced walls and innovative tube designs giving better heat transfer. Multi-chamber, dimpled tubes, and tubes with internally enhanced surfaces are our contribution to reducing CO²-levels. Today, in many heavy vehicles, we can find more than 20 heat exchangers, most of them oil coolers. With our range of turbulators, we do not only support customers to change to lighter and more efficient tube & fin concepts, but we also give comfort and constant high service when taking over internal processes from our customers. For the air conditioning systems, SAPA WELDED TUBES offers one-piece manifolds that withstand high pressures and perfectly suit modern brazing processes. Well-known international OEM-producers use our extensive knowledge and R&D capabilities to assist in new developments such as refrigeration with CO², exhaust gas recirculation, and battery cooling for hybrid and electrical vehicles. - 9 -
FROM PROTOTYPE TO SERIAL PRODUCTION PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Our dedicated team of development engineers will interactively support you in every step of your project and help you to select the right alloy, temper, clad ratios and dimensions for your application. We offer a rapid prototyping service and keep a well-assorted sample stock. Having a great and long-lasting experience, our customers benefit not only from high quality products, but also from our high expertise and in-depth knowledge of metallurgy, joining methods and brazing. As a key player in the market today, we keep innovating in order to keep up with the ever-changing end-user requirements. We wish to assist our customers with the highest competence, state of the art equipment and outstanding service. PRODUCT RANGE To meet the needs of all customers, SAPA WELDED TUBES has developed a wide range of alloys and tempers to suit a vast array of applications. We supply aluminium welded tubes in diameters from a straw to the size of a flagpole and offer a cut-to-length service, enabling customers to buy finished components and eliminate in-house process scrap. In addition to the standard products, our technical support team keeps innovating and developing new products on customers request. ALWAYS ONE STEP FURTHER SAPA WELDED TUBES has a clear strategy to support its partners in the development of tube solutions, but even in the next processing steps we offer more and more finished products. Best practice examples can be found in different sectors but always rely on a close cooperation between both business partners. A fully automated manifold production, robot cells to produce air suspension parts, drive shafts that are ready to plug and play, and many more... All these are examples of SAPA WELDED TUBES in-house solutions available for development and serial production. When it comes to providing the best grade of finishing to our customers, we go a long way. - 10 -
ADDED VALUE SAPA WELDED TUBES is without a doubt world-class in manufacturing high frequency aluminium welded tubes, but we also differentiate ourselves in offering tailor-made solutions to our customers through a wide range of added value services: END FORMING Our aluminium welded tubes are highly customizable through a variety of forming processes without losing their strength. After tube welding, further production steps can be performed such as deburring, tube end brushing, bending, swaging, expanding, riveting, flattening, tapering, punching, shouldering, brazing,... Formed parts such as air suspension guiding (inner and outer), stamped headers or finished manifolds, and many more have no secrets to us. ANODISING / VARNISHING Though for most products the bright finish does not really require any additional coating, surface treatments such as anodising and powder coating may be interesting to improve corrosion resistance or surface finish. Moreover, SAPA WELDED TUBES offers economical and ecological anodised welded tubes manufactured from pre-anodised strip material. ENHANCED SURFACE Increasing the surface area of the inner tube improves performance of heat transfer applications significantly. It also enables customers to achieve a more compact design of heat exchangers. This surface enhancement can be done by implementing inner fins, dimples or grooves. CLADDING For additional corrosion protection, post-braze strength or to improve joint formation, our aluminium welded tubes are offered with clad layers; single, double or even multilayers. We offer different clad layers for brazing as well as for material protection (e.g. FA6815 waterside clad). - 11 -
CONTACT GENERAL CONTACT CENTRAL EUROPE E-mail: weldedtubes@sapagroup.com Website: www.sapagroup.com/weldedtubes Tel.: +32 51 72 97 54 Košíkov 76, 595 01, Velká Bíteš GSM: + 420 608 200 758 TEL.: + 420 566 502 405 klima@minirol.eu 04/2014