Most tooling orders go wrong in one of two places: the information sent with the order, or the checks skipped when the crates arrive. This guide covers both, and it applies whether the mill on your floor was built by YH or by another manufacturer.
Choosing the mould family — laser, high-frequency or cold forming — is a separate question; settle that first, then use this list to buy and receive it.
What the tooling must match
A roller set is not a catalogue item. It is cut for a specific mill, a specific pipe size and a specific strip. YH asks for five items with every tooling quotation:
- Mill model or brand. The frame, forming stations and drive fix the roller bore, keyway and spacing.
- Pipe size range to produce. A set built for one diameter will not cover a range it was not designed for.
- Pipe shapes. Round, square or rectangular — each takes a different tooling group.
- Strip grade you run. The material you form drives the steel choice and the heat treatment.
- Roller wear photos, if available. Photos of a worn set show where the strip actually runs, which is more useful than a nominal drawing.
If you are quoting a new pipe size on an existing mill, the size range and mill model carry most of the weight. Wear photos only help when you are replacing a set already in service.
Ordering tooling for another brand's mill
YH runs custom development, and that includes tooling for mills built by other manufacturers. The tooling is made to fit the mill, not to fit a YH frame.
What makes that feasible is measurement. It helps to send readings taken from the existing mill — the base diameter and bore the shafts accept, and the keyway — together with the mill brand and model and the pipe size range. That lets a tube mill roll design be matched to a machine that was not ours.
A tube mill reline machine order follows the same route: the mill stays in service and the new rolls are cut to the measurements of the existing frame.
From there it is a normal custom mould project, and every YH mould follows the same 11-stage flow: raw material, rough machining, drilling, CNC precision machining, polishing, marking, heat treatment, bore grinding, finish machining, keyway cutting, final inspection.
The flow is fixed; only the dimensions are custom.
What the inspection record should contain
YH inspects key dimensions 100% before delivery. Ask for the same list in the paperwork, whatever the brand:
- Raw material
- Arc precision
- Hardness
- Thickness
- Base diameter
- Bore and keyway
It is a 100% check, not a sample, so the record should cover every mould in the shipment rather than a certificate for the batch. Hardness on the record has to be read against the family, because the families carry different HRC bands:
| Family | Hardness |
|---|---|
| Laser welding moulds | 60–65 HRC |
| HF welding, cold forming | 60–66 HRC |
The tooling category summary gives Cr12MoV / SKD11 / D2 at 60–66 HRC with tolerance from ±0.02 mm — that is the widest case across the range, not the laser figure. Use it as a sanity check on the shipment, then read the family row for the actual acceptance value.
Arrival checks by family
Do not check an arriving mould against a general tolerance. Check it against its own row:
| Mould family | Size range | Tolerance | Hardness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laser welding, round | Φ5 – Φ630 mm | Roundness ±0.05 – ±2.0 | 60–65 HRC |
| Laser welding, square | F10×10 – F400×400 | Flatness ±0.05 – ±2.0 | 60–65 HRC |
| Laser welding, shaped | F10×10 – F400×400 | Flatness ±0.05 – ±2.0 | 60–65 HRC |
| HF welding, round | Φ5 – Φ711 mm | Arc ±0.02 mm | 60–66 HRC |
| HF welding, square | 10 – 1000 mm | Diagonal ±0.02 mm | 60–66 HRC |
| Cold forming profiles | Custom sections | Per drawing | 60–66 HRC |
Read the table as three different acceptance criteria. Laser moulds are accepted on roundness or flatness, and the ±0.05 – ±2.0 band spans a whole size range, so the value that applies is the one for your diameter, not the widest end of the band.
HF moulds are accepted on arc (round) or diagonal (square) at ±0.02 mm.
Cold-forming profiles have no fixed tolerance in the table — they are checked against the drawing agreed with the order, which is why that drawing must travel with the shipment.
Steel grades follow the same split: laser moulds in Cr12MoV / SKD11 / D2, HF moulds in Cr12MoV alloy steel, cold-forming profiles in high-Cr MoV alloy. If the packing slip names a different grade from the row you ordered, hold the shipment and query the supplier before acceptance.
Wear and re-order
YH states a service life above 5,000 hours, with stable rolling over thousands of tons of steel and a mirror finish on the working surface. Treat 5,000 hours as a planning baseline for well-run tooling on suitable strip.
The source does not state a regrinding interval or a fixed replacement frequency for any mould family. If a supplier quotes you one without measurements from your mill, ask what it was calculated from.
To make a re-order accurate, record four things as the tooling runs:
- Hours run.
- Pipe size produced.
- Strip grade.
- The failure point — which mould, which surface, and what the tube looked like at the time.
Attach that log and new wear photos to the re-order, along with the original mill model and size range. A re-order issued with the original five items plus an honest wear record is what lets the second set correct what the first set got wrong.
Send the order list
If you have a mill model, a pipe size range and a strip grade, that is enough to start. Send them to the contact page, add the pipe shapes and any wear photos, and the tooling is quoted against those inputs rather than a stock size.
If the mill is another brand, say so in the message and include the bore, keyway and base diameter readings.
The tooling and spare parts page carries the full family table if you need to confirm your row first.