TPi July 2010

Photo credit: copyright H Butting GmbH & Co KG

Tianjin Pipe Corporation (TPCO) placed another order for a RD660 HF pipe welding plant – the world’s largest continuous pipe welding plant by its manufacturer’s account. This plant serves to produce high-strength oil field and line pipes complying with API standards, as well as pipes for the construction sector with round, rectangular and square cross-sections in line with DIN 10219. Round pipe dimensions here range from 244.5 to 660.4mm diameter, with wall thicknesses between 4 and 22.2mm. TPCO also awarded SMS with an order for a RD355 HF pipe welding line that was commissioned in late 2009. The two lines running at TPCO’s site will have a joint annual output of 450,000 tons. JSC Chelyabinsk (ChTPZ Group) in Russia has built a new large pipe plant with an annual capacity of 600,000 tons for manufacturing longitudinally welded steel pipes with diameters of 508 to 1,422mm, wall thicknesses of up to 45mm, lengths of up to 18.3m and steel grades of maximum K80. It is scheduled for commissioning in 2009 at the Chelyabinsk site in South Ural and will be among the most modern of its kind in the world. The pipes produced in Chelyabinsk will be joined to form pipelines for oil and gas. The pipe plant features two pipe forming presses: one 18.3m press and one 12.2m press. The 18.3m long pipes offer a benefit in terms of lower pipe laying costs because there are fewer welding seams required to join the pipes compared to shorter pipes. By way of contrast, the shorter pipes can also be produced with extremely high wall thicknesses, despite their small diameters, and are therefore especially well suited for offshore pipelines, where they have to resist higher pressure.

Summer 2009 saw Zhongyou BSS Petropipe Co Ltd commission a large pipe plant supplied by SMS to Qinhuangdao, about 300km east of Beijing, China. The new plant, with an annual capacity of up to 150,000 tons, is thought to be the most modern of its kind in China. It will be used to make longitudinally welded steel pipes of 508 to 1,422mm diameter, with wall thicknesses up to 40mm, lengths of up to 12.2m, and grades up to X100. One of the decisive factors for placing the order with SMS were the benefits offered by the JCO ® pipe forming press as the principal plant component. By the firm’s own accounts, the JCO process developed by SMS Meer has become the global standard because it offers more flexibility, plus high quality and lower investment costs than other processes. Over the past few years it has been introduced at many large diameter pipe plants and is considered the most suitable process for producing even small pipe diameters with high wall thicknesses. This means that the market segment offshore pipelines can also now be served. The commissioned line is suited to the production of pipes complying with all major international standards, such as API, ISO and DNV. Such pipes are used for lines that transport oil and gas from Chinese oil rigs in the north to cities in the east and south of the country.

Messe Düsseldorf GmbH – Germany www.messe-duesseldorf.de

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Tube Products International July 2010

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