CSI Tubular Products, Inc. (CSITP), a wholly-owned subsidiary of California Steel Industries, Inc. (CSI), based in Fontana, California, U.S.A., has successfully commissioned an electrical resistance welding (ERW) line for up to 24-inch diameter pipes supplied by SMS Meer, Germany. The plant achieves production speeds of up to 35 meters per minute and is capable of producing up to 400,000 tons of pipe per year. SMS Elotherm, Germany (..........com) supplied the necessary induction HF welding and seam annealing technology.
The first welded pipe at CSI.
For the equipment supplied to CSI Tubular Products, SMS Meer has further developed its plant and process technology. Coil pay-off can now be performed from above and below, meaning better strip alignment within the plant’s forming process, depending on the direction of rolling of the inserted strip.
The SMS Meer inline and offline quick-change systems for the URD® stands are more productive than changing systems for conventional stand designs. The quick-change system is supported by the CSS® Quicksetting system, which sustainably improves the product quality by database-assisted plant settings. The stand drives can be separately controlled.
SMS Elotherm’s EloWeld™ 1800 pipe welding plant is integrated into the central section of the pipe mill and ensures reliable welding of the longitudinal seams. The downstream EloSeam™ 3000 pipe seam annealing plant allows for post-annealing, where necessary, thanks to its ability to be traversed longitudinally. This is required if, for example after a standstill of the plant, a portion of the non-annealed pipe does not meet the quality requirements. The output is therefore higher than with conventional, stationary seam annealing plants.
The new plant is able to produce pipes with outside diameters of between 8 5/8 inches (219.1 millimeters) and 24 inches (609.6 millimeters). Wall thicknesses range from 0.157 inches (four millimeters) to 0.750 inches (19.1 millimeters), with pipe lengths of between 20 ft. (six meters) and 80 ft. (24.4 meters).
