U. S. Steel, Lambda Technologies Enter Technology Agreement
03/15/2011 - U. S. Steel Tubular Products enters into an agreement with Surface Enhancement Technologies that will make the company the exclusive tubular products manufacturer to utilize Low Plasticity Burnishing.
United States Steel Corp.’s tubular products subsidiary, U. S. Steel Tubular Products, Inc., has entered into an agreement with Surface Enhancement Technologies (SET), part of Lambda Technologies Group, to permit U. S. Steel Tubular Products to be the exclusive tubular products manufacturer to utilize Low Plasticity Burnishing (LPB®).
Low Plasticity Burnishing can be applied to a variety of tubular products to improve their performance and extend their service life. Utilizing this technology will enable U. S. Steel Tubular Products' pipe performance designers to engineer an applied layer of high residual compression to any specific area of a tubular product. U. S. Steel Tubular Products' Product Development group and representatives from Lambda are also testing the ability of the LPB’s potential to mitigate sulfide stress cracking in high-strength P110 grades.
LPB extends component life by creating a deep, stable layer of compression in part surfaces. Unlike other surface treatments, Low Plasticity Burnishing induces a very low amount of cold work, making the protective layer thermally and mechanically stable. Processing requires only basic Computer Numeric Controlled (CNC) machines or robots, which can be integrated quickly and easily, and no alteration of the component's material or design is required. The technology can be applied to a wide variety of metals, including titanium, aluminum, nickel-based alloys and steels, and is currently in use in the aerospace, nuclear and medical industries.
"The LPB process will allow U. S. Steel Tubular Products to offer our customers a wide range of engineered product solutions with longer-lasting, more resistant parts designed to perform in situations that involve challenging field conditions," said U. S. Steel's Senior Vice President – Tubular Operations Douglas R. Matthews, who also serves as President of U. S. Steel Tubular Products.
U. S. Steel Tubular Products, Inc., a subsidiary of United States Steel Corp., is the largest tubular products manufacturer in North America, with total annual production capability of 2.8 million net tons. Energy industry customers utilize U. S. Steel Tubular Products' casing, tubing, line pipe and couplings to help locate, retrieve, transport and refine oil and natural gas products.
Lambda Technologies Group incorporates a premier materials research laboratory with a world-class engineering and production enterprise dedicated to the development and optimization of surface treatments to improve component performance. In addition to U. S. Steel Tubular Products, Lambda has partnered with Delta, NASA, the U.S. Military and other organizations across industries. LPB® is a registered trademark of Lambda Technologies Group; the technology is patent protected.
