TPT November 2012

Industry News

Controlling HF weld quality THERMATOOL Corp held a presentation on ‘controlling HF weld quality’ by Dr Lesley Frame, manager of materials engineering and development, at the recent FABTECH in Chicago. Dr Frame’s presentation covered an overview of HF welding process parameters, introduction to the

Dr Lesley Frame

anatomy of an HF weld (metallurgy and microstructure), protocol for destructive characterisation of an HF weld including metallography and microhardness testing, and discussion of possible weld defects, how to identify them, what they indicate, and how to avoid them. In addition to Dr Frame’s presentation Thermatool’s executive director, Kris Livermore, discussed ‘Trends in the Global Tube and Pipe Industry’ and Pete Meglin presented ‘Proper Selection of Power, Frequency, and Coil Design’.

Dr Lesley Frame has presented her research at over a dozen domestic and international conferences. Recent investigations include the analysis of distortion in quench and tempered products due to non-uniform phase transformations, the examination of hundreds of metallographic HF weld samples to establish protocols and databases for weld analysis and troubleshooting, and HF welding optimisation experiments on and off operating tube mills with a focus on weld fixture design, coil design, and the welding of high alloy steels.

Thermatool Corp – USA Email: info@ttool.com Website: www.thermatool.com

Marmon/Keystone adds new saw in Minnesota

alloy, stainless and aluminium tubular and bar products. Service centres and sales offices are located throughout North America, with corporate headquarters in Butler, Pennsylvania.

increasing the quality of our finished cut lengths.” The band saw allows the Lino Lakes facility to meet the needs of existing customers and new business in the Minnesota and western Wisconsin markets. A leading wholesale distributor of tubular products for over 100 years, Marmon/Keystone inventories more than 15,000 sizes and grades of carbon,

MARMON/Keystone’s location in Lino Lakes, Minnesota, USA, recently installed a new Amada 530 CNC band saw. The saw features the most up-to- date technology, which allows for an extremely close cutting tolerance. “This equipment also increases our cutting capacity to 21" OD at this facility,” said district warehouse manager Kevin Fogarty. “We can now be even more productive, all while

Marmon/Keystone LLC – USA Fax: +1 724 283 0558

Email: sales@marmonkeystone.com Website: www.marmonkeystone.com Technical planning of revamp of continuous caster

zones (ten control circuits per segment). After the revamp, casting is to be effected dry, starting with segment 9. SMSSiemagwasawarded this contract after more than 400 technical criteria had been reviewed by ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe. SMS Siemag thus continues to be the leading supplier to German flat- rolled steel producers.

The revamp scheduled for 2014 is designed to improve the slab quality and expand the product portfolio. The caster will be rated to produce slabs that are between 1,000 and 2,150mm wide and 257mm thick. It is intended to increase the strand length (segments 14 and 15). Planning also includes the replacement of the present single- fluid cooling system by an air-mist cooling system with adjustable, width- dependent breakdown of the cooling

THYSSENKRUPP Steel Europe has awarded SMS Siemag a contract covering the comprehensive and detailed planning for the revamp of its continuous caster no. 1 at the Duisburg- Beeckerwerth works. SMS Siemag supplied the continuous caster no 1 in 1974 and modernised it in 1985 and 1998. It is used for the production of high-quality starting material for high-strength steel, ULC and IF steels as well as tinplate, sheet, pipe and tube strip and quarto plate.

SMS Siemag AG – Germany Fax: +49 211 881 4902 Website: www.sms-siemag.com

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N ovember 2012