TPT November 2012

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Industry News
16 November 2012
Marmon/Keystone adds new
saw in Minnesota
MARMON/Keystone’s location in Lino
Lakes, Minnesota, USA, recently
installed a new Amada 530 CNC band
saw. The saw features the most up-to-
date technology, which allows for an
extremely close cutting tolerance.
“This equipment also increases
our cutting capacity to 21" OD at
this facility,” said district warehouse
manager Kevin Fogarty. “We can now
be even more productive, all while
increasing the quality of our finished
cut lengths.”
The band saw allows the Lino Lakes
facility to meet the needs of existing
customers and new business in the
Minnesota and western Wisconsin
markets.
A leading wholesale distributor of
tubular products for over 100 years,
Marmon/Keystone inventories more
than 15,000 sizes and grades of carbon,
alloy, stainless and aluminium tubular
and bar products. Service centres and
sales offices are located throughout
North America, with corporate
headquarters in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Marmon/Keystone LLC
– USA
Fax: +1 724 283 0558
Email:
Website:
Technical planning of revamp
of continuous caster
THYSSENKRUPP Steel Europe has
awarded SMS Siemag a contract
covering the comprehensive and
detailed planning for the revamp of its
continuous caster no. 1 at the Duisburg-
Beeckerwerth works.
SMS Siemag supplied the continuous
caster no 1 in 1974 and modernised
it in 1985 and 1998. It is used for the
production of high-quality starting
material for high-strength steel, ULC
and IF steels as well as tinplate, sheet,
pipe and tube strip and quarto plate.
The revamp scheduled for 2014 is
designed to improve the slab quality
and expand the product portfolio. The
caster will be rated to produce slabs
that are between 1,000 and 2,150mm
wide and 257mm thick. It is intended to
increase the strand length (segments
14 and 15).
Planning also includes the
replacement of the present single-
fluid cooling system by an air-mist
cooling system with adjustable, width-
dependent breakdown of the cooling
zones (ten control circuits per segment).
After the revamp, casting is to be
effected dry, starting with segment 9.
SMSSiemagwasawarded this contract
after more than 400 technical criteria had
been reviewed by ThyssenKrupp Steel
Europe. SMS Siemag thus continues to
be the leading supplier to German flat-
rolled steel producers.
SMS Siemag AG – Germany
Fax: +49 211 881 4902
Website:
Controlling HF weld quality
THERMATOOL Corp held a presentation
on ‘controlling HF weld quality’ by Dr
Lesley Frame, manager of materials
engineering and development, at the
recent FABTECH in Chicago.
Dr Lesley Frame has presented her
research at over a dozen domestic
and international conferences. Recent
investigations include the analysis of
distortion in quench and tempered
products due to non-uniform phase
transformations, the examination of
hundreds of metallographic HF weld
samples to establish protocols and
databases for weld analysis and
troubleshooting, and HF welding
optimisation experiments on and off
operating tube mills with a focus on
weld fixture design, coil design, and the
welding of high alloy steels.
Dr Frame’s presentation covered
an overview of HF welding process
parameters, introduction to the
anatomy of an HF weld (metallurgy and
microstructure), protocol for destructive
characterisation of an HF weld including
metallography and microhardness
testing, and discussion of possible weld
defects, how to identify them, what
they indicate, and how to avoid them.
In addition to Dr Frame’s presentation
Thermatool’s executive director, Kris
Livermore, discussed ‘Trends in the
Global Tube and Pipe Industry’ and Pete
Meglin presented ‘Proper Selection of
Power, Frequency, and Coil Design’.
Thermatool Corp – USA
Email:
Website:
Dr Lesley
Frame