TPT January 2014

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Industry News
6 January 2014
Surge in demand
for steel pipes
and tubes benefits
manufacturers
THERE has been a significant upswing
in the demand for industrial furnaces
required for the manufacture of steel
pipes and tubes, which are utilised in a
wide variety of applications. The bulk of
the growth has been in OCTG welded
and seamless pipe used primarily
in casing applications, as well as
automotive and mechanical tubing.
The OCTG growth in North America
can be attributed to the shale gas and
oil developments, combined with the US
victories in trade cases against Chinese
supplied OCTG pipe in 2010. The
result has been the recapitalisation of
existing tube production plants, as well
as massive investments in Texas, North
Eastern USA and Canada. One of the
most important API requirements is an
upgrading of the mechanical properties
from standard J55 to N80, L80, P110
and Q125. To achieve this, steel
producers and end finishing companies
are investing heavily in automated
high volume continuous heat
treatment systems. At this time
there are at least ten major
new facilities either under
construction or capital plans for
investment in the geographic
territories mentioned above,
with Texas winning the lion’s
share of the new investment.
While induction heat treating
is a viable option for certain
locations at lower production rates,
the preferred technology has been
direct gas fired walking beam furnaces
combined with water spray quenching
on the OD and ID of the pipe.
Production rates up to 100 tons/hour
are envisioned covering the size range
2.875" to 13.75" and wall thicknesses up
to 2". The majority of new installations
have favoured the industrial furnace
route for both the austenitising (AF) and
tempering (TF) portions of the quench
and temper cycle.
Precision mechanical tubing,
used in everything from
hydraulic cylinder to bearing
production, has seen increased
activity.
In applications involving
annealed (softened) steel
tubes, there has also been
strong demand for high
volume continuous bright
annealing furnaces. Recent
installed capacities have been
undertaken for systems up to
30tph, operating under a variety
of atmospheres including
hydrogen, nitrogen, and
manufactured gases from the
controlled combustion of natural
gas to result in atmospheres
containing strongly reducing
components of carbon
monoxide and hydrogen.
A number of these tubes are
produced to exacting tolerances
for diameter and wall thickness,
and are subjected to significant
cold drawn stresses during
their production. As a result, the need
to anneal the tubes prior to subsequent
redraws, or prior to shipment, is an
important step in the process. To
protect the surfaces from oxidation,
reducing combustible atmospheres are
necessary to ensure the surface finish.
Lastly there are new installations
underway for the production of large
diameter (12"–24") heavy walled tubes
(1.625") utilised in the transportation of
industrial gases. This very specialised
market segment of high value goods
measures production rates in pieces
per day as opposed to tons per hour.
In the US, there are only two domestic
manufacturers of such highly specialised
products that utilise seamless tubes,
end spinning and finally quench and
temper heat treatment to achieve the
tight metallurgical and mechanical
properties. Quenching systems for such
applications are done in immersion
baths that range in volumes from 50,000
to 100,000 gallons of special polymer
solutions.
The importance of industrial furnace
technology to the success of the oil,
gas, automotive and machine building
industries is of immense value, and
manufacturers such as Can-Eng
Furnaces International have reaped
the benefits from the increased North
American and global demand.
Can-Eng Furnaces International Ltd
– Canada
Fax: +1 905 356 1817
Email:
Website:
There has been a surge in demand for steel pipe
Large diameter steel pipe in production