TPi March 2017

OCTG, gas & pipel ine products

Seamless tube manufacture at Fine Tubes and Superior Tube

Oil and gas customers continually look for cost and performance improve- ments, particularly during the current economic climate. A big agenda item for both tubing specialists is the incremental changes needed to support a commitment to continuous improve- ment. As an example, Fine Tubes last year invested to increase the production of heavier weight seamless coils that provide customers with longer single coil lengths and offer the added benefit of greater integrity resulting from the lower number of orbital joints in the production of downhole control lines. Along with Fine Tubes and Superior Tube, AMETEK Specialty Metal Products includes four other businesses: Hamilton Precision Metals, AMETEK Wallingford, AMETEK Eighty Four, and Reading Alloys. Collectively, they represent a leading force not just in precision tubing but also in precision strip, wire and foil, speciality metal powders and clad metal sheets. Fine Tubes – UK sales.finetubes@ametek.com www.finetubes.com Superior Tube Co – USA www.superiortube.com

However, both companies believe the benefits outweigh the difficulties. One example is Titanium TiX, a titanium grade with a much-improved strength- to-weight ratio and enhanced formability. The growing demand for seamless tubes from Fine Tubes and Superior Tube comes from across their range of markets. Seamless tubes accounted for some 74 per cent of the two companies’ combined turnover in 2016. Aerospace and energy each represent approximately one third of that seamless business, followed by oil and gas (18 per cent) and medical (11 per cent). Geographically, the greatest demand for tubing for both companies comes from the USA, followed by Europe. With Superior Tube’s entry into the oil and gas market, one recent customer project is a contract win from TEMA India Ltd to supply heat exchanger tubing for a new floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. The vessel is among several commissioned by Brazilian energy giant Petrobras as part of its project to develop the oil reserves in the pre-salt fields in the Santos basin off the Brazilian coast. Superior Tube provided 37km of seamless alloy 625 tubing for the vessel’s heat exchangers.

Seamless tubes deliver the best performance when the requirements call for high pressure endurance and strength-to-weight ratio. UK-based Fine Tubes and US-based Superior Tube, both units of AMETEK Specialty Metal Products, have a long history of manufacturing seamless tubes for a wide range of applications in which performance is critical – from aerospace to nuclear power, and from medical equipment to deep water oil and gas extraction. Both Superior Tube and Fine Tubes have the facilities to manufacture precision tubing in seamless as well as welded and redrawn forms. As experts in manufacturing high-performance tubes, the businesses offer a range tubes made of high-end alloys that include super alloys, such as NORSOK-approved 6 Moly, 904L and Super Duplex; nickel alloys, such as 825 and 625; titanium; and zirconium. The last two are expected to be the most significant growth areas in 2017. Both companies continually develop new techniques to create ever stronger, yet lighter, tubing products. These next- generation materials are more difficult to work with than traditional alloys.

49

www.read-tpi.com

March 2017 TUBE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL