As a process for producing seamless tubes, the tandem skew rolling (TSR) process was proposed. In order to study deformation characteristics and mechanism on tubes obtained by the TSR process, a numerical simulation of the process was analyzed using Deform-3D software. Simulation results demonstrated the distribution of stress, strain, velocity, and temperature of a seamless tube in the stable stage during the TSR process. Actual experiments of carbon steel 1045, high strength steel 42CrMo, and magnesium alloy AZ31 were carried out in a TSR testing mill. The results demonstrated that the TSR process is qualified for producing tubes of high quality, with an accuracy of ±0.2 mm in wall thickness and ±0.35 mm in diameter. This process is suitable for manufacturing seamless tubes that are difficult to deform or that have been deformed in a narrow range of temperature.

An innovative magnetostatic force sensor consisting of a laser source, a tiny cantilever beam, and a small permanent magnet was developed and used for defect inspection in ferromagnetic samples in the present article. The penetrating zone within a ferromagnetic material under the magnetic field provided by a permanent magnet was called the magnetic sensing zone (MSZ), and surface or internal defects within the MSZ were inspected by measuring the change in the magnetostatic force. This magnetostatic force could be calculated by the Maxwell tensor integrating over the surface and interface of a ferromagnetic material. Numerical and experimental results demonstrated that this sensor was reliable and could precisely inspect the defects of different sizes in ferromagnetic samples. In summary, the sensor proposed in this paper has the potential for industrial applications to detect surface and sub-surface tiny defects on ferromagnetic steel thin sheets, such as the zinc slag defect of hot galvanized sheets, cracks on cold-rolled sheets, and the ferromagnetic oscillation marks of continuous casting.