Seamless tube plant from SMS Meer makes it possible
At the Hunan works of the Chinese tube producer, Hengyang Valin Steel Tube, erection has started of the new PQF (Premium Quality Finishing) plant supplied by SMS Meer, Germany. This will enable Hengyang in future to serve the seamless tube market with all tube sizes. The mill is designed for an annual capacity of 500,000 t of seamless tubes in diameters up to 180 m. The line is expected to commence production as early as autumn this year. With the new tube mill, Hengyang will increase its total seamless tube production to 2 million t.
The engineering for the complete plant comes from SMS Meer. The core elements such as the PQF mill proper were manufactured in the Monchengladbach workshop. Other plant components will be supplied by SMS Meer China, such as an extracting mill and a Stretch-reducing mill together with the structural components of the mill stands and stand changing equipment.
Project Manager Matthias Terhart )SMS Meer): ‘’We have been a partner of Hengyang for decades. In the 90s we erected a line for tubes in the lower size range, and in 2005 a futher seamless tube plant was added for larger dimensions. Hengyang can now produce all sizes of seamiess tubes.’’
PQF stands for ‘’Premium Quality Finishing’’. In the PQF mill, the three rolls are positioned uniformaly around the tube. As a result, the forces acting on the tube are distributed more uniformly around the circumference than with the conventional 2-roll arrangement. The benefits of the PQF process are reduced tolerance deviations in the roll gap, less material stress and fewer disruptive influences during the rolling process. For tube mill operators such as Hengyang this means that tube production runs in a more stable manner and is easier to master. The lower material stress makes it possible for the product range to be extended to thin-walled dimensions and higher steel grades.
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