TPT January 2014

Industry News

Surge in demand for steel pipes and tubes benefits manufacturers

high volume continuous heat treatment systems. At this time there are at least ten major new facilities either under construction or capital plans for investment in the geographic territories mentioned above, with Texas winning the lion’s share of the new investment. While induction heat treating is a viable option for certain

THERE has been a significant upswing in the demand for industrial furnaces required for the manufacture of steel pipes and tubes, which are utilised in a wide variety of applications. The bulk of the growth has been in OCTG welded and seamless pipe used primarily in casing applications, as well as automotive and mechanical tubing. The OCTG growth in North America can be attributed to the shale gas and oil developments, combined with the US victories in trade cases against Chinese supplied OCTG pipe in 2010. The result has been the recapitalisation of existing tube production plants, as well as massive investments in Texas, North Eastern USA and Canada. One of the most important API requirements is an upgrading of the mechanical properties from standard J55 to N80, L80, P110 and Q125. To achieve this, steel producers and end finishing companies are investing heavily in automated

Large diameter steel pipe in production

their production. As a result, the need to anneal the tubes prior to subsequent redraws, or prior to shipment, is an important step in the process. To protect the surfaces from oxidation, reducing combustible atmospheres are necessary to ensure the surface finish. Lastly there are new installations underway for the production of large diameter (12"–24") heavy walled tubes (1.625") utilised in the transportation of industrial gases. This very specialised market segment of high value goods measures production rates in pieces per day as opposed to tons per hour. In the US, there are only two domestic manufacturers of such highly specialised products that utilise seamless tubes, end spinning and finally quench and temper heat treatment to achieve the tight metallurgical and mechanical properties. Quenching systems for such applications are done in immersion baths that range in volumes from 50,000 to 100,000 gallons of special polymer solutions. The importance of industrial furnace technology to the success of the oil, gas, automotive and machine building industries is of immense value, and manufacturers such as Can-Eng Furnaces International have reaped the benefits from the increased North American and global demand. Can-Eng Furnaces International Ltd – Canada Fax: +1 905 356 1817 Email: furnaces@can-eng.com Website: www.can-eng.com

locations at lower production rates, the preferred technology has been direct gas fired walking beam furnaces combined with water spray quenching on the OD and ID of the pipe. Production rates up to 100 tons/hour are envisioned covering the size range 2.875" to 13.75" and wall thicknesses up to 2". The majority of new installations have favoured the industrial furnace route for both the austenitising (AF) and tempering (TF) portions of the quench and temper cycle.

Precision mechanical tubing, used in everything from hydraulic cylinder to bearing production, has seen increased activity. In applications involving annealed (softened) steel tubes, there has also been strong demand for high volume continuous bright annealing furnaces. Recent installed capacities have been undertaken for systems up to 30tph, operating under a variety of atmospheres including hydrogen, nitrogen, and manufactured gases from the controlled combustion of natural gas to result in atmospheres containing strongly reducing components of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. A number of these tubes are produced to exacting tolerances for diameter and wall thickness, and are subjected to significant cold drawn stresses during

There has been a surge in demand for steel pipe

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J anuary 2014