SMS Meer Delivers PQF Seamless Tube Plant to China
07/05/2011 - SMS Meer has started delivery of what it says is the world’s largest Premium Quality Finishing plant for seamless tubes with diameters up to 20 inches. The customer is a Chinese consortium consisting of the Tianjin Pipe Corp. and the Jiangsu Shagang Group Huaigang Special Steel Co.
SMS Meer, Germany, has started delivery of what it says is the world’s largest PQF® plant (Premium Quality Finishing) for seamless tubes with diameters up to 20 inches. The customer is a Chinese consortium consisting of the Tianjin Pipe Corp. (TPCO) and the Jiangsu Shagang Group Huaigang Special Steel Co.
Erection is scheduled to start in August 2011 in the Huai’an works in Jiangsu province. Production is due to start at the beginning of 2012. The capacity of the new PQF plant is 500,000 tonnes of seamless tubes per year. Main customers are the oil and gas industry.
SMS Meer says that the PQF process results in smaller tolerance deviations in the roll gap, minimum material load, and fewer disruptive influences during the rolling process. The lower material stress makes it possible for the product range to be extended to thin-walled dimensions and higher steel grades.
For the 20-in tubes, SMS Meer has developed the world’s largest cone-type piercer with a roll diameter of 1700 mm. The company is also to supply the PQF mill, the components for the run-out side, and the extracting and sizing mill. The engineering for the mechanical and electrical parts of the hot section of the mill also come from SMS Meer.
In the PQF mill, the three rolls are positioned uniformly around the tube. As a result, the forces acting on the tube are distributed more uniformly around the circumference than with the two-roll arrangement.
SMS Meer GmbH is a company of the SMS group, which is, under the roof of the SMS Holding GmbH, a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering for the steel and nonferrous metals industry. It consists of the two business areas, SMS Siemag and SMS Meer. In 2010, about 9200 employees worldwide generated a turnover of EUR 3 billion.
