TPT November 2008

T echnology U pdate

New grinding machine for seamless pipe manufacturer

Corus Northern Engineering Services (CNES) has built and installed a large grinding machine for Wyman-Gordon Ltd, a manufacturer of seamless pipes for the offshore oil, gas and power generation industry, based in Livingston, Scotland. The new grinding machine, which measures 19m in length by 2.5m wide and 4.5m high, weighs approximately 70 tonnes and has a 16m travel for the grinding heads. The machine will supplement the company’s original grinding machine, which is more than 40 years old and will help to reduce lead times for process pipe. The new grinding machine will be used to grind the outside diameter of seamless pipes, which vary in length from 5m up to 12m, with diameters from 200m up to 1,200m (as long as the weight does not exceed 15 tonnes). The grinding machine grinds the outside casing to give a smooth, flat finish to the pipe. Wyman-Gordon manufactures a range of class 1 rotating parts for military, civil and industrial gas turbine applications.

These products include gas turbine engine shafts, structural and landing gear forgings for military and civil aircraft, as well as manifolds, sphere tees, valve bodies and seamless pipes for the offshore oil and gas industries. The new machine is part of a significant capital investment expansion project at the company’s Livingston site. The plant boasts one of the world’s largest ‘clam shell’ furnaces, which is used to heat treat the seamless pipes. The CNES machining workshops in Scunthorpe are equipped with heavy duty cranes, lifting gear and machining facilities required to carry out the new grinding machine build. The majority of the new machine (in terms of weight) is in the rails and travelling beam, which had to be lifted in one piece, and so heavy duty lifting gear was required. John Backhouse, business development manager, offshore and energy at CNES said, “ Our engineers had to manufacture the new grinding machine from the original drawings. The existing grinding machine includes both metric and imperial

components and so CNES also had to cope with a mixture of original imperial drawings and new metric ones to build the machine. ” Corus Northern Engineering Services – UK Fax : +44 1642 404726  CNES has installed a new grinding machine for Wyman-Gordon

Email : cnes@corusgroup.com Website : www.corusnes.com

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info@contrastsale.com

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N ovember 2008

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