TPI July 2011

news business & market

US Steel and Lambda announce technology agreement

treatments, LPB induces a very low amount of cold work, making the protective layer thermally and mechanically stable. Processing is performed using basic CNC machines or robots, allowing for quick and easy integration into manufacturing facilities. No alteration of the component’s material or design is required. LPB can be applied to a wide variety of alloys, including titanium, aluminium, nickel- based alloys and steels, and is currently in use in the aerospace, nuclear and medical industries. “The LPB process will allow US 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 US Steel’s senior vice president – tubular operations, Douglas R Matthews, who also serves as president of US Steel Tubular Products. “The relationship that will result from this agreement has almost limitless possibilities,” commented Paul Prevey, chief executive officer of Lambda Technologies Group. “The combination of innovation and experience that Lambda and US Steel Tubular Products possess means that we will be able to do more than ever before to help solve material cracking and fatigue issues.” US Steel Tubular Products, Inc, has a total annual production capability of 2.8mn net tons. Energy industry customers utilise its casing, tubing, line pipe and couplings to help locate, retrieve, transport and refine oil and natural gas products. United States Steel Corporation – USA www.ussteel.com

By using LPB, US Steel Tubular Products’ pipe performance designers will be able to engineer an applied layer of high residual compression to any specific area of a tubular product. The company’s product development group and representatives from Lambda are also testing the ability of the LPB process to mitigate sulphide 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

United States Steel Corporation has announced that its tubular products subsidiary, US Steel Tubular Products, Inc, has entered into an agreement with Surface Enhancement Technologies (SET), part of Lambda Technologies Group, to permit US Steel Tubular Products to be the exclusive tubular products manufacturer to utilise Low Plasticity Burnishing (LPB ® ), an advanced, patented technology that can be applied to a variety of tubular products to improve their performance and extend their service life.

Marmon/Keystone renews warehouse lease Tubular products wholesale distributor Marmon/Keystone has renewed the lease for 25,000ft 2 of warehouse space at its McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania facility. “This renewal shows our commitment to our customer base in the region,” commented Lou Grenci, branch manager. The lease is effective until January 2013. Marmon/Keystone inventories more than 15,000 sizes and grades of carbon, alloy, stainless and aluminium tubular and bar products. Service centres and sales offices are located throughout North America, with corporate headquarters in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Marmon/Keystone LLC – USA sales@marmonkeystone.com www.marmonkeystone.com

Premium connections for offshore operation Specialists from TMK, a global producer of pipes for the oil and gas industry, took part in lowering a tubing string with premium-class threaded connections into a well more than 2.5km deep, situated on Lukoil’s Yury Korchagin oil deposit in the Caspian Sea. The pipes were produced at TMK’s Sinarsky Pipe Plant, and the finishing threading operations were carried out at the TMK-Kaztrubprom manufacturing facility. After the running-in, the tubing string was subjected to an air-tightness test pressure of 200 atmospheres for 30 minutes. During the testing, none of the TMK pipes was rejected as defective by the customer. TMK – Russia tmk@tmk-group.com www.tmk-group.com

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Tube Products International July 2011

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