Handheld Metal Tube Straightener

NASA’s Handheld Metal Tube Straightener is designed with an embedded stationary anvil and a dynamic hammer attached to a knob/lead screw. The extension and retraction of the hammer is manually operated by the knob. The tube straightener contains an oval opening that serves as an insertion point for the to-be-straightened tube. Once the tube is inserted, the hammer can be repetitively clamped and unclamped while progressively inserting the tube until it passes through the tool’s built-in “GO” gauge, which is a tolerance inspection device. After the tube passes through the GO gauge it appears in a GO window indicating that the proper length of tube has been straightened. Leakproof connections are desirable for conduit tubes. A steadfast connection depends in part on fully inserting a straight and un-scratched end of the tube into a fitting for swaging. Avoiding linear scratches at the end of the tube is mandatory, as a scratch on the exterior of a tube that extends at least partially lengthwise past the fitting may create a leak path. Many available tube straighteners, such as those that require sliding the tube through the straightener under resistance, introduce linear scratches. NASA’s Handheld Metal Tube Straightener has a technology readiness level (TRL) 9 (actual system flight proven through successful mission operations) and the related patent is now available to license. Please note that NASA does not manufacture products itself for commercial sale. Researchers at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed an in-novative Handheld Metal Tube Straightener that removes bends within the last 3.5 inches of a malleable metal tube end – such as those used for fuel, pneumatic, and hydraulic pressurized lines – so that the tube end can be swaged into a commercial swage fitting. Although the current tool is designed for standardized 4mm tubing, potential scaling may exist for different diameter tubing. Commercially available tube straighteners mainly use rollers to straighten long metal tubing, but the spacing of the rollers typically prevents or complicates bend-removal near the end of the tube. They can also leave linear scratches on the straightened area which may introduce the risk of creating a leak path at the fitting, especially when high-pressure gas flows in the tube. NASA’s handheld tube straightener can solve these issues by not only successfully removing small and large bends near and at the tip of a tube, but do so without introducing linear scratches. The Handheld Metal Tube Straightener was successfully used during a spacewalk on the NASA “EVA 61 Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS)” repair mission.