SteelNews.com Article
CSI Orders 24-Inch HF Tube Welding Line from SMS Meer
Mar. 5, 2013 California Steel Industries (CSI), located in Fontana, Calif., has placed an order with SMS Meer, Germany, for the delivery of a 24-inch HF tube welding line. The line will be used to primarily produce up to 400,000 tons of line pipes according to API 5L. In addition to increased production capacity, the new line will enable CSI to expand its tube product range to 24 inches outside diameter, with 80-foot lengths. CSI currently offers HF tubes with outside diameters up to 16 inches.
SMS Meer further developed the process and systems technology for CSI. The line is designed to produce pipes at a rate of 35 m/min.
What's more, the plant will feature the SMS Meer inline and offline quick-change system for the URD® stands. This solution offers up to 30% higher productivity than conventional changes using a shop crane. The quick-change system is supported by the CSSQuicksetting® system developed by SMS Meer which ensures that product quality can be reproduced and improved over the long term, thanks to a database-supported plant setting.
Another advantage is the traveling MF seam annealing system. During a line stop, areas of the pipe insufficiently annealed and hence not satisfying the quality demands can be reannealed, hence significantly increasing the yield of prime material compared with a conventional seam annealing system.
SMS Meer's scope of supply includes the engineering, commissioning and customer training. All components for the entire HF tube welding line will also to be supplied from strip preparation to the forming section with stands in URD® design for higher precision up to the cooling section, sizing section with URD® stands and travelling milling cut-off system.
On the new HF tube welding line, CSI will be able to produce tubes with diameters from 8 5/8" (219.1 mm) to 24" (609.6 mm). Wall thicknesses range from 0.157" (4 mm) to 0.750" (19.1 mm), with pipe lengths from 20 ft. (6 m) to 80 ft. (24.4 m).
The plant will be brought into service in 2014.
Pictured below: Overview of forming section of a comparable plant from SMS Meer