How Is Steel Pipe Produced?
Other People Are Reading
-
Background
-
Steel pipes are round, hollow lengths of steel. They are used in a number of industrial and commercial applications. Steel pipes are used in construction to transport water or natural gas, in household appliances and medical equipment. A hypodermic needle is an example of a very small steel pipe. Steel piping is broken into two general categories: welded and seamless. While specific methods vary from facility to facility, most steel pipes are produced using a similar process.
Steel Production
-
The initial phase of the steel pipe production is generating steel itself. Steel is principally made of iron which is mixed with a variety of elements to generate specific characteristics. Some elements that can be added include tungsten, aluminum and manganese. The iron ore is melted in a furnace together with a substance called coke (a carbon heavy substance typically made from coal). The product is exposed to oxygen to burn off the excess carbon and poured into molds to cool into what are called ingots. The cooled ingots must then be processed into a bloom or slab. This generally involves subjecting the ingots to intense pressure under rollers to produce flatter metal pieces. Blooms tend to be longer and thinner than slabs. In order to be made into pipe, both slabs and blooms will undergo further processing. Slabs are heated and passed through a long series of rollers to produce a very thin steel ribbon called skelp that is wound onto spools. Blooms are also passed through rollers to make them longer and narrower but are not made as thin as skelp.
-
Pipe Production
-
The process breaks into two areas for the actual pipe production. Welded pipe is made using skelp. The spools of skelp are unwound by an unwinding machine and subjected to heat to make them more malleable. The heated skelp is then fed through rollers that bends the skelp into a round shape. The seam between the two edges of the metal is then welded using electrodes and run through another set of rollers to help reinforce the seam. At this juncture, the pipe is cut to length.
Seamless pipe is made using billet steel. The billet is also subjected to heat and then molded into a cylindrical shape. This cylinder is placed into a furnace until it becomes white hot. The cylinder is rolled under pressure which creates a hole in the center of the cylinder. A device called a piercer point, a bullet shaped metal construct, is then passed into the hole while the cylinder is rolled. This is done to help create a uniform shaped hole and overall pipe thickness. A final pass through a rolling mill is used to complete the shaping process.
-
