TPi March 2017

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March 2017 TUBE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL 25
business & market news
Innovation award joint win
Cooper Standard and DSM were
honoured with a Society of Plastics
Engineers (SPE) Automotive Innovation
Award during the annual awards gala.
The team won SPE’s Most Innovative
Use of Plastics award in the materials
category for Cooper Standard’s high
performance vacuum brake tubes
designed for automotive industry
applications.
Developed to replace traditional clamped
rubber hoses, Cooper Standard’s
vacuum brake tube simplifies engine
and undercarriage routing. The design
uses a smaller diameter with a thinner
wall, which allows a 35 per cent space
saving and more than 50 per cent
weight reduction over current rubber
hoses and clamps. The product also
allows for rapid assembly and ease of
maintenance through the use of quick
connectors, and eliminates the need for
heat shields and brackets.
“The DSM Arnitel® CM622 thermoplastic
material provided us the perfect
opportunity to deliver customers an
innovative solution to meet critical mass
reduction goals, while exceeding their
expectations for high performance
vacuum brake applications,” said Chris
Couch, vice president, innovation and
product groups, Cooper Standard.
“We’re thrilled to be honoured by SPE
for this team achievement.”
Arnitel CM622 thermoplastic enables
the vacuum brake tubes to perform
over a broad temperature range (-40°C
to +150°C), with chemical resistance,
burst strengths exceeding 60 bar and
flexural force of greater than 50N.
The Arnitel CM622 material was
designed to maintain property retention
after extended exposure to elevated
temperatures. The plastic lines and
connectors are resistant to the corrosive
effects of road salts.
Commenting on the award on behalf
of DSM, Bill Senge, R&T director
Americas, stressed the importance
of the partners’ collaboration from
concept to market in this project: “What
is most challenging in our business is to
stay ahead of the innovation curve. We
at DSM believe strong collaborations
ensure that our developments cater
for current and future market trends.
This SPE award for Cooper Standard’s
high performance vacuum brake
tubes is also proof of what can be
achieved when material specialists and
application engineers join forces to
drive automotive trends and speed
the implementation of next-generation
lightweighting designs.”
Cooper Standard – USA
Royal DSM – Netherlands
TMK GIPI delivers casing
pipes to BP Oman
Pipe manufacturer TMK Gulf International Pipe Industry
(TMK GIPI) LLC, part of global pipe manufacturer TMK, has
completed delivery of J55 casing pipes to BP Oman.
BP Exploration (Epsilon) Ltd ordered 185/8" 87.5ppf J55 BTC
R3 casings from TMK GIPI (totalling 6,100m) for an urgent
requirement. The plain end pipes were produced by TMK
GIPI’s Oman facility and delivered to the USA, where casing
pipes were threaded by TMK IPSCO and delivered to BP
Oman on time.
Andrey Parkhomchuk, international business VP at TMK,
commented, “TMK is a global leader in producing steel pipe,
and supplies oil and gas majors with best-in-class tubular
products all over the world. BP is our respectful client and
our TMK GIPI subsidiary was keen to successfully execute an
important urgent order for BP in tight schedule conditions.”
TMK GIPI was established as a limited liability company in
the Sultanate of Oman in January 2007. It claims to be the
first manufacturer of high pressure steel line pipes and casing
pipes in Oman and the first mill in the MENA region and the
subcontinent of India to manufacture high pressure 24" ERW
steel pipes.
TMK – Russia