SMS Meer to Supply Large-Diameter Pipe Mill for ChTPZ Group
11/29/2007 - SMS Meer will supply the machines and equipment for a new large-diameter pipe mill for JSC Chelyabinsk in Russia.
JSC Chelyabinsk (ChTPZ), Russia, has placed an order with SMS Meer to supply machines and equipment for a new large-diameter pipe mill.
The new pipe mill, which will employ SMS Meer’s JCOE® process, will have an annual capacity of 600,000 tonnes, making it the largest that SMS Meer has built to date in Russia. It will be used to produce longitudinal SAW steel pipes with diameters from 508 to 1422 mm and wall thicknesses up to 45 mm in lengths up to a maximum of 18.3 meters and material grades up to K80.
An upgradeable technical concept enables the mill’s quality standard to be increased at a later date by integrating additional high-tech equipment.
The new pipe mill will employ SMS Meer’s JCOE® process, which uses a JCO® pipe forming press as main forming aggregate. Manipulators gradually guide the plate, which has been milled and crimped at the edges, onto the press’s forming tool, resulting in an open-seam pipe with parallel longitudinal edges that is ready for pipe welding. This process, which has become well established on the market in recent years, is competitive with other processes because of its flexibility and its lower investment costs.
ChTPZ’s pipe mill will be equipped with a 18.3-meter and a 12.2-meter JCO pipe forming press that will enable the facility to meet both current and future market demands. Pipes produced in Chelyabinsk will be laid as pipelines for oil and gas. The advantage of the 18.3-m-long pipes is the lower laying costs, as the number of connecting welds is lower compared with shorter pipes. The 12.2-meter press will enable the production of shorter pipes with extremely thick walls, even with small diameters, that are well suited for use in offshore pipelines where they have to withstand enormous pressures. Pipe quality will meet all international standards.
As general contractor, SMS Meer is to supply all the machines and equipment for the new large-diameter pipe mill. In addition to the two JCO pipe-forming presses, this will also include a plate edge milling machine, plate edge crimping press, two tack welding machines, two mechanical expanders, a hydrostatic pipe tester, and facing and chamfering machines, as well as the equipment for non-destructive testing. SMS Meer is also responsible for the punctual delivery of all components and for comprehensive quality control.
SMS Meer’s scope of supply also includes a Level-2 automation system as the link between the superordinate computer system (to be supplied by ChTPZ) and the equipment of the 1st automation level.
Scheduled to go into operation at the Chelyabinsk site in the Southern Urals in 2009, the new pipe mill will be one of the most modern of its kind in the world.
SMS group is, under the holding SMS 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 Demag and SMS Meer, which jointly form SMS metallurgy. In 2006, some 9,000 employees worldwide generated a turnover of about EUR 2.8 billion.
