SMS Elotherm. Benteler places order for quench & temper line

Benteler Steel/Tube from Salzburg, Austria, has placed an order with SMS Elotherm, Germany, for a TemperLine™ for its planned seamless pipe plant in Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S.A. With the construction of the new plant, the company is strengthening its presence in one of the most important growth markets of global oil and gas exploration.

The quench & temper line consists of the inductive austenitizing and equalising sections, the quenching station and the associated transport roller tables and cooling beds.

SMS Elotherm employs the IGBT converter technology developed and built in-house to generate the working frequency and power. It is thus possible to treat all pipe diameters from around 40 millimeters to almost 140 millimeters with different wall thicknesses at a throughput of up to 15 tons per hour on the line. The centerpiece of the TemperLine™ are the flexible multi-zone converters with a total installed power of around 10 MW from the Elomat^® series. Eight zones of the austenitizing and annealing section are individually controlled with just three converters to ensure optimum process results.

“This line configuration enables Benteler to achieve metallurgical and geometrical quality results that are far better than the demands of the applicable API standard,” says Dr. Guido Opezzo from SMS Elotherm.

Benteler can also save themselves the investment in straightening and sizing presses, as the straightness and ovality of the pipes require no additional straightening operations after heat treatment on the TemperLine™.

The line is scheduled to go into operation in the second half of 2015.

The photo shows an example of an existing quench & temper line

Based on SMS Group information