TPT November 2009

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I ndustry N ews

2009FABTECH International &AWSWeldingShow

can be found at the event’swebsite,where visitors can also save $50 by registering in advance. Fabricators&Manufacturers Association, International –USA Fax :+1 815 4847701 Email : information@fmafabtech.com Website :www.fabtechexpo.com

The FABTECH International and AWS Welding Show, including METALFORM, will be held atMcCormick Place, Chicago, 15-18November. 35,000 visitors are expected to converge in both the North and South Halls of McCormickPlace,and this year’s combined event brings over 900 exhibits, industry innovators, and hundreds of live equipment demonstrations among pavilions dedicated to forming and fabricating, stamping, welding, tube and pipe, lasers, and thermal spray. Attendees can also take advantage of a unified educational curriculum during the 2009 event, featuring a variety of technical seminars, conferences and professional programmes. From metal forming, fabricating, tube and pipe and welding technology to economic, operation and management issues, the Phamitech International, China, is a supplier of pipemills to the globalmarket. The company has experience and flexibility, and can tailor solutions to customer requirements. The company states that after dozens of installations of piercing mills, rotary expanders, accu mills, assel mills, sizing mills/stretch reducing mills, pipe straightening machines, and other

programming at the event has been coordinated to provide the latest and most up-to-date information needed to successfully operate in every aspect of the industry. Threedaysof freespecial event programming 

Briskbusiness at the previousFabtech event

will feature keynote presentations and drill down sessions covering topics ranging from workforce development, diversifying operations, financing/credit and tax incentives toopportunities in the wind, solar and oil andgas supply chain. Additional show infor- mation, including a list of exhibitors, education programme schedule, special events and more

Seamless tube technology inChina

finishing equipment, China has emerged as an important supplier of 2-roll and 3-roll retainedmandrel pipemills (MPM). Phamitech has delivered two MPMs in China, one ofwhich, a 250MPM, has been in operation for almost three years. The other is a 114MPM, which is a repeating order fromWSP Holding Limited, and has been delivered recently. The company has also received orders for another two lines



10" stretch reducingmill



from the same customer: a 366 TRCM (3-roll retained mandrel pipe mill) that is undermanufacture, and a 140MPM that is in the design stage. Phamitech’s next order, from Neimeng Mengfeng, is for a 140MPM seamless tube plant,which isalso in thedesign stage. In February, the company obtained one 180MPM order from India, which is the first MPM order Phamitech has received from the international market, indicating a successful step into global competition.The project is in progress as per contract. Phamitech Int’lCompanyLtd –China Fax :+86 10 68470948

258mm piercingmill

The international magazine for the tube and pipe industries providing worldwide news and information on tube and pipe production, processing and machinery.

Email : sales@phamitech.com Website :www.phamitech.com

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G lobal M arketplace

Turkey, whose cooperation is essential for the pipeline but which was brought only slowly to acquiesce in the transit rules hammered out by the participants. Turkey now allows that it is prepared to go ahead on the project.ButPresidentAbdullahGul hasmade it clear that he expects to see some parallel progress on Turkey’s stalled bid formembership of theEuropeanUnion. Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan declined to sign the agreement, presumably out of deference to Russia, which views Nabucco as a potential geopolitical challenge. The recent decline in energy prices has weakened the Russian position somewhat, creating an opportunity that the Western partnership was poised to seize. If itmaterialises, the Nabucco pipeline couldmove some 31 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually, or up to 5% of consumption in the countries of the European Union. The cost of infrastructure has been estimated at $12.2 billion, but that is not the sole challenge. Other steady and reliable sources of natural gas must be secured, beyond Azerbaijan; and the likeliest of these— Iran and Iraq— are problematic, to say the least. • AsreportedbytheMoscow-baseddaily Kommersant on 27May, work is tobegin thisSeptemberonan Iran-Pakistanpipeline,with completion also projected for 2014.According to the newspaper, theRussian gasmonopolyGazprom is promoting the project on grounds that thediversionof Iraniangas tomarkets inSouthAsia would eliminate a source of competitionwithRussia as a supplier of gas toEurope. Steel demand will stabilise in the latter part of 2009, leading to a mild recovery in 2010, the World Steel Association predicted in April. As befits the world’s biggest steel consumer, China has committed $586 million to spurring domestic demand.Worldwide, individualproducersareemployingvarious interimstrategiesof their own. Both sets of initiatives— national and corporate— presume a recovering market. The companies recognize something else: the imperative to be in the best possible state of health when that market opens up. RebeccaKeenan,writing fromMelbourneon bloomberg.net (5May), noted that steel makers from Europe’s ArcelorMittal to Australia’s OneSteel Ltd have taken advantage of a global stocks rally to sell shares this year, strengthening finances as they cut output and conserve cash. One such is Melbourne-based BlueScope Steel Ltd (formerlyBHPSteel), an integrated producerwith operations in Australia,NewZealand,Asia-Pacific, andNorthAmerica. Although globalmarket conditions remain “challenging,”BlueScope said inMay that thedecline indomesticsalesvolumes thatwasseen toward the end of 2008 had levelled out. The producer planned to raise asmuch asA$1.4 billion (US$1 billion) from its second share sale in threemonths. Its offer to existing stockholderswas at a 40% discount to the last traded price. “There is plenty ofmoney around and they are taking advantage of that,” the head of Australian equities at a brokerage house inSydney told Bloomberg . BlueScope also said it might delay restarting the Number 5 blast furnace atPortKembla after amajor relinewas completed in June. Steel Profile in preparedness: BlueScopeSteel Ltd (Australian)

Automotive Connoisseurship not consolidation: BMW bucks an industry trend

■ Reviews on the newest technology available

The German luxury auto maker BMW is taking a contrarian approach to the challenges of themarket.While Fiat andChrysler join forces,BMW isgoing italone, confident thatpremium cars from an independent producer hold perennial appeal for individualists with deep pockets. “Do peoplewant to differentiate themselves from each other?” The question was posed by Friedrich Eichiner, BMW’s chief financial officer, during an interview with the International Herald Tribune at the Munich headquarters of the company. Mr Eichiner answered himself: “I think so.Thatwish is there and it is enduring.” The Tribune ’s Carter Dougherty pointed out that Mr Eichiner’s “instinct” is up against some bracing realities in a period of austerity and greater personal savings— especially in the United States. (“BMWPuts aPremium on Independence,” 7May) The Tribune noted that Fiat’s chief executive Sergio Marchionne believes the successful carmaker of the future will need to sell at least 5.5 million vehicles a year— far more than the 1.4 million BMW sold in 2008. In the view of the auto industry’s “man of the moment,” only that volume of saleswill support development of the technology required tomeet increasingly rigorous standards for fuel efficiency and emissions control. Accordingly, theFiat chiefpursuedamergerwithbankruptChrysler, andmay also pick up the European operations ofGeneralMotors. MrDougherty noted that, tomany industry executives, “It is time for the premium manufacturers to consider similar moves, combining high-margin carswith economies of scale.” • But,toMrEichinerandotherBMWexecutives,thatbusinessmodel ignores amajor problem of large-scale operations: the punishing fixed costs of factories andworkers that become a burden at less than full-boreproduction.Thecompanychooses instead to rest its hopes ina smalleroperationgeared todiscerningandaffluent car buyers in Europe and theUnited States. SaidMr Eichiner, “Size does not protect you from anything.” Pipelines TheEuropeanUnionmoves closer to a start date forNabucco, butRussia intends to fight its corner An energy agreement signed 8May by the European Union and Turkeyaims to speedup the startdateon constructionof the2,000- mile Nabucco pipeline, which would bring natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe while bypassing Russian territory.A prime consideration is the reduction of dependency on Russia, currently the supplier of some 20% ofEurope’s fuel needs.TheEU hopes to be pumping first gas throughNabucco by 2014. The agreement, signed by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Egypt, and Turkey at a summitmeeting in Prague, had hinged on

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September 2009 |Vol22No5 |US$33

T echnology u pdate

InnovativeGB90/GB100 mandrel tube and pipe bender

Ercolina, USA, has launched the GB90/ GB100 semi-automatic Giga Bender mandrel machine for large radii tooling up to 16”CLR.The bender is ideal for bending tube, pipe, square and rectangular profiles to centreline radius as tight as 1.5D. The interactive PLC touchscreen offers easy access to auto andmanual operating modes, system diagnostics and multiple language capability. The heavy steel structure of the GB90/GB100 provides a rigid platform andminimizes vibration. The machine is complete with a high capacity hydraulic reservoir with automatic cooling system. The GB90/GB100 offers programmable bend angles with an independent material springback setting for each bend. Programmable auto mandrel positioning allows the operator to optimize extraction for improved bend quality. Clamping, pressure die and boost movements are programmable with a manual override. Convenient USB connectivity is available for unlimited programmemory storage and communication.

www.RandolphTool.com

 TheErcolinaGB90/GB100 semi-automaticGigaBender mandrelmachine

Themachinesareavailablewith fullCNC (6) axiscontrol,withprecisionencodersoneach axis ensuring highly accurate bending.This accuracy is highlighted by the interactive touchscreen that displays absolute (ABS) or incremental (INC)positioningwith inchor metric readout. Inaddition,aprogrammable tail stock interference zone monitors position and eliminates workhead collision. The bender accepts YBC and XYZ input values.

Standard hydraulic ports accept Ercolina’s patented (KST) clam shell or (FST) finger clamp systems. The hand-held remote bending control is certified class 3 safety and all electrical components are UL, CSA andCE approved. CMLUSAErcolina –USA Fax : +1 563 391 7710 Email : info@ercolina-usa.com Website :www.ercolina-usa.com and reliable solution formanufacturing heat exchangers, for power plants (nuclear and thermoelectric plants), and for systems that workwith corrosive fluids. Application fields include chemical and petrochemical industries, ammonia and urea systems, fertilising and refinery plants. The new technology creates a unique bimetallic tube from two distinct tubes of different materials. The main advantage of this kind of tube is the possibility to join together two materials with different mechanical properties and with opposite aims. For example, the first material (inner or outer) could be a high corrosion resistant alloy (eg copper, aluminium-brass, zirconium)and thesecondoneahighstress resistant alloy (such as steel, stainless steel, iron, duplex, titanium). The new manufacturing technology is designed to be cheap and fast, and the productionmethod is easy to carry out. BeCaEngineeringSocCoop – Italy Email : salesoffice@beca-engineering.com Website :www.beca-engineering.com

November 2009 |Vol22No6 |US$33

Newmachine for the production of bimetallic tubes and pipes

Graeb_Anz_Titel_0308.qxd 07.03.2008 9:56 Uhr Seite 1

TUBEMILLS ROLLFORMERS CUT-OFFS WELDERS PRESSES STRAIGHTENERS &MORE

Be Ca Engineering Soc Coop, Italy, a provider ofmachines formanufacturing and testing tubes and pipes, has launched a

new,patented technology for theproduction of bimetallic tubes and pipes. Bimetallic tubes and pipes are an effective, economic

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UNIVERSALTUBE&ROLLFORM EQUIPMENT CORPORATION

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