Tenaris is preparing the hot rolling mill at TenarisBayCity for final testing before its startup which will give the seamless mill the capability to produce pipe.
“We are making sure all the equipment installed, the systems and processes are operating as designed and specified,” said Giuseppe Randazzo, Operations Director at TenarisBayCity. “This is a major milestone which requires extensive testing to make sure the hot rolling mill is ready to make pipe.”
The hot rolling mill is the area of the plant that transforms solid steel bars into pipes. About 13,000 tons of equipment is installed in this section of the plant, which includes equipment critical to the manufacturing process such as the bar cutting area, rotary hearth furnace, the piercer, the Premium Quality Finishing (PQF) mill, induction coils, the stretch reducing mill and cooling bed for the pipes, among other components.
TenarisBayCity is already operating in two other areas of the mill -- heat treatment and the finishing line. Heat treatment is the process in which pipes are heat treated, quenched and tempered to obtain specified metallurgical properties, and the finishing line is the area where the pipes are threaded, undergo non-destructive testing as well as other quality tests, are stenciled and also prepared for shipment.
In addition to the mill’s construction, the administrative campus, which includes buildings for the main offices, data center, quality lab and other facilities, are projected to be completed this summer.
Last month, TenarisBayCity received its API certifications, API 5CT and 5L, as well as ISO 9001.
The $1.8 billion seamless mill, set to start operations in the fall, is the most advanced, automated seamless pipe manufacturing facility in the world, and will be able to produce 600,000 tons of OCTG when fully operational. TenarisBayCity is a key component of the company’s model of working directly with customers, delivering products and services directly from the mill to the rig known as Rig Direct™.
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