The Düsseldorf-Rath Works - Vallourec

The Düsseldorf-Rath Works

PILGER ROLLING MILL AND PLUG MILL

p.2 / Vallourec / The Düsseldorf-Rath Works

It was 1899 when the brothers Reinhard and Max Mannesmann started pro-ducing steel tube and pipe in Düssel-dorf-Rath. Today, over 100 years later, we are still strongly committed to this tradition which we uphold under the name Vallourec. Our Düsseldorf-Rath Works is at the top of Europe‘s tube and pipe production plants.

Using a state-of the-art plug mill and an equally advanced pilger rolling mill, Rath manufactures seamless steel tubes in diameters of 193.7 to

About us

711.0 mm for a wide and varied range of applications.

Long-standing expertise, judicious in-vestments in modern plant technology, continuous process monitoring and a highly motivated and skilled workforce ensure the premium quality of steel tubes made in Düsseldorf-Rath.

Meeting our customer’s requirements and expectations in a safe working environment is our prime objective. In line with our benchmark of absolute

customer satisfaction, quality is our top priority both in our products and ser-vices, whether reflected in special heat treatment processes, custom-machin-ing, occupational safety or on-schedule completion. This does not just mean top quality as such, but also reliably reproducible parameters for every single product, for every service and on every occasion. After all, our customers require from us products of the utmost quality if they are to fulfil the challeng-ing requirements placed on their own end products.

The Düsseldorf-Rath plant

Vallourec / The Düsseldorf-Rath Works / p.3

Our overriding objective is

customer satisfaction

A comprehensive performance package

One of the world’s largest and most efficient pilger rolling mills

One of the world’s most advanced high-performance plug mills

A comprehensive range of materials, from carbon to high-alloy stainless steels

Production of quality tubes in diameters of 193.7 to 711.0 mm and wall thick-nesses of 6.3 to 110.0 mm (for special sizes up to150.0 mm)

A complete range of heat treatment equipment

Oilfield tube production in diameters of 7˝ to 26˝, with API and premium thread-ed connections (VAM® family)

A state-of-the-art testing center

A wide range of machining and finishing services to specified requirements

Regular recertification audits to ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, API Q1 AD-W0, API 5CT and 5L licensee for many years

ISO 50001

More than 100 years’ expertise and experience in tube production


Total Quality Management(TQM) – by conviction

Vallourec Management System

To attain its ambition to be, everywhere in the world, leader in premium tubular solutions, Vallourec has built its strate-gy on a management model and a set of clearly defined and regularly updated strategic and operational priorities.

The Vallourec Management System (VMS) provides a framework for setting and reviewing objectives, targets and goals at all levels of the organization and in each area of activity. It drives excellence in all key areas of operations including, but not limited to, Safety & Health, Quality and Environment, with a continuous improvement process guid-ed by the Vallourec Code of Ethics and through understanding our customer’s needs.

Vallourec Rath has set in place the VMS

to guarantee sustainable stakeholder satisfaction. The VMS relies on three cornerstones to support the teams in achieving their goals – whether strate-gic, operational, or continuous improve-ment:

Set and deploy objectives Monitor and decide Analyze and improve

Quality Management

Vallourec’s Rath works is in line with national and international standards and specifications. It is certified in accordance with: ISO 9001 API-Q1 ISO 14001 OHSAS 18001 ISO 50001 AD-W0/TRD 100 87/23/EC API 5L API 5CT ASTM ASME EN

At each step of the manufacturing pro-cess, every single product is identified and checked against customer speci-fications and internal standards based on the order sheet. This extensive measurement and evaluation system is further supported by proven meth-ods and state-of-the art equipment. Vallourec encourages employees and supports their development by recog-

nizing and improving their efficiency. According to the Vallourec Management System, all members of the Vallourec family, from top management to the shop floor, are responsible for realizing the corporate policy objectives within their own sphere. All employees are encouraged to participate in inter-disciplinary continuous improvement teams, so as to help tap hidden poten-tials, develop best-practice strategies and achieve constant positive results day after day. Vallourec’s Rath works offers its employees regular training.

We establish strong relationships with our customers so as to re-spond better to their stated and implied needs and expectations, in line with Vallourec’s benchmark of absolute customer satisfaction.

In our industry, leadership means

excellencein everything

we do.


For the benefit of the envi-ronment and our employees.

The most stringent standards of occupational health and safety, environmental protec-tion and energy conservation

Alongside customer satisfaction, occu-pational health and safety enjoy high priority at Vallourec. The objective is to promote workplace health and prevent accidents causing personal injury and material damage. Right from the start, occupational health and safety issues are taken into account when deciding on processes, types of equipment and workflows. Needless to say, they also figure prominently in our continuous improvement process.

Last but not least and of equal priority there is environmental protection. As an enterprise with energy-intensive production, we contribute through suit-able measures to the reduction of CO2 emissions, and we take a responsible approach to resource utilization and the recycling of unavoidable waste. An efficient and certified environmental and energy management system underpins the sustainability focus of our opera-tions and activities in the interest of our customers, society and the environ-ment.

The success of our efforts hinges on the skills and motivation of our

employees.


Expect flexibility

Quality from the startVallourec has an integrated production chain, based on its own steel mills as well as participations or long-term partnerships. From molten steel to finished tube-based solutions. This is a great advantage for us and for our customers, for the quality of our products coming from a single source – Vallourec – right from the beginning. The starting material is continuously cast tube-making rounds – for the plug mill – or conventionally cast ingots – for the pilger rolling mill – in a wide range of materials and grades. Our advanced heat treatment and testing facilities allow us to produce tubes with pre-cisely the desired and documented microstructure and properties. This is essential, given that our tubes have to resist increasingly complex and aggres-sive environments. Be it high pressures and/or temperatures or ambient media – no steel tube could cope with the punishing conditions involved without having undergone the right kind of heat treatment to customer specifications.

Tubes and Pipes for Power Generation

The petrochemical industry has many and varied applications for seamless steel tubes


A broad product portfolioThe production facilities at our Rath works are extremely flexible as can be seen from the wide variety of products we offer our customers:

Commercial tubes

Quality tubes in C-steels

Boiler tubes for power plant engineering

Structural tubes for machinery and steel construction

Tubes for the petrochemical industry

Cylinder and pressure vessel tubes

MSH sections (circular, square and rectangular)

Mechanical tubing

OCTG (casing and couplings)

Line pipe (onshore and offshore)

Added value products (pre- and finish-machined tubes and tubular parts)

Hollows (intermediate products) for drawing shops

Stainless steel tubes for special requirements

Steel tubes for power plant engineering, and for the

oil & gas and petrochemical

industries

Tubes for the oil- and gas industry, onshore and offshore


Tubes for machinery and steel constructionTubes made in Düsseldorf-Rath are used in machinery and steel construc-tion and also as structural elements in architecture: as circular, square or rectangular MSH sections (structural hollow sections), as mechanical tubes, as high-strength fine-grade steel tubes

Many and varied uses in

architecture and machinery and

steel construction

PREON© box – wide-spanned supporting structures made of MSH sections

for engineering and many other purpos-es including:

Axles Hydraulic components (e.g. for the min-ing industry or heavy-duty trucks)

Gas cylinders OCTG mechanicals (starting material for accessories for the oil & gas industry)

Crane construction Offshore structures (e.g. jack-up rigs, wind turbines)

Steel tubes for hydraulic cylinders MSH sections for agricultural equipment Steel tubes for the spire topping the One World Trade Center


The centerpiece of the pilger rolling mill

Pilger-rolled tubes in diameters of up to 711 mm

Plug rolled tubes The plug mill

The pilger rolling mill and the plug millTailored to the intended application

The pilger rolling mill

The special strength of the pilger rolling mill are tubes with large diameters and wall thicknesses. The size range spans outside diameters of 241 to 711 mm and wall thicknesses of 10 to 110 mm.

The pilger rolling process was patented by Max Mannesmann as early as 1891. It owes its name to the discontinuous procedure of the process – two steps forward, one back – which resembles the pilgrims’ dancing procession in the Luxembourg town of Echternach.

History

The rolling mill at the Düsseldorf-Rath location took up production in 1899 to replace the rolling mill in Remscheid originally used by the Mannesmann brothers. Over the decades, the works has been continuously expanded and modernized.

Thus, it is still one of the world’s most efficient rolling mills for seamless tubes. The plug mill and the pilger rolling mill at Düsseldorf-Rath are two separate high-performance plants for the pro-duction of seamless tubes in their own specific size ranges.

The plug mill

The plug mill turns out circular tubes in diameters of 193.7 to 406.4 mm as well as square and rectangular hollow sections in sizes of 150 x 150 mm to 400 x 200 mm, with wall thicknesses of 6.3 to 25 mm.


Pierce rolling mill Plug mill Reeling mill

Billet storage Preheating furnace Rotary-hearth furnace

Reheating furnace Sizing mill Tube straightener

Tube end testing and rotary milling Multi-test block Final inspection, dimensional check, weighing

Transport

The plug mill – plant layout and process

Continuously cast rounds are heated to 1,280 °C in the rotary-hearth fur-nace and afterwards rolled to hollows in the pierce-rolling mill. The pierced hollows then undergo two passes in the plug mill to reduce their wall thickness. During this process, an annular gap is created between the rolls and the plug, corresponding to the desired wall thickness. After reeling, reheating and

diameter reduction in the sizing mill, the tubes are allowed to cool before being transferred to the finishing lines.


Plug mill manufacturing programme

Standard Ø mm 6.3 7.1 8.0 8.8 10.0 11.0 12.5 14.2 16.0 17.5 20.0 22.2 25.0 28.0 30.0 32.0 36.0 38.0 40.0193.7196.9203.0206.4216.0219.1223.0229.0232.0241.0244.5254.0267.0273.0283.0298.5306.4318.0323.9327.0339.7346.1355.6368.3383.0406.4

Circular

14

Square/rectangular

Edge lengthWidth x Height mm 6.3 7.1 8.0 8.8 10.0 11.0 12.5 14.2 16.0 17.5 20.0 25.0

150 x 150200 x 100160 x 160200 x 120220 x 120200 x 150250 x 100180 x 180260 x 110200 x 200250 x 150260 x 140300 x 100220 x 220260 x 180300 x 150250 x 250300 x 200260 x 260300 x 300

Wall thickness in mm

350 x 250400 x 200



Pierce rolling mill Pilger rolling mill Hot saw

Ingot storage Rotary-hearth furnace Piercing press

Reheating furnace Sizing mill Cold straightener

Multi-test block Final inspection Dimensional check, weighing

Transport

The pilger rolling mill – plant layout and process

The starting material is conventionally cast round ingots in unit weights of up to 8 tons. They are heated in the rotary-hearth furnace to the temper-ature required for center-piercing in the downstream piercing press. The resultant hollow bloom with integral bottom then passes through the pierc-ing mill, where the wall thickness is reduced as the hollow is elongated. In

the pilger rolling mill, specially shaped rolls finally elongate the hollow over an internal tool, the so-called pilger man-drel, to the desired tube dimensions.After pilger rolling, the tube ends are cut off and the tube is either reheated for further processing in the sizing mill, or it is directly transferred to the finishing line.


Pilger mill manufacturing programme

CircularStandard Ø mm 10.0 11.0 12.5 14.2 16.0 17.5 20.0 22.2 25.0 28.0 35.0 45.0 60.0 85.0 110.0241.0244.5254.0267.0273.0298.5318.0323.9330.2339.7346.1355.6368.0377.8393.7406.4419.1426.0444.5457.2473.1479.4495.3508.0521.0533.4546.1558.8571.5584.2609.6622.3635.0660.4711.0



Most tubes are immediately further pro-cessed after leaving the rolling mills.This takes place in various shops linked to the main production area. The following facilities and equipment are available:

Non-destructive testing, e.g. ultrasonic wall thickness check and longitudinal, transverse, oblique, internal and exter-nal defect detection; flux leakage test; magnetic particle inspection (MPI)

Our ultramodern cassette store

Diverse heat treatment shops, e.g. for quench-and-temper treatment with simultaneous external and internal quenching with oil or water; air quench-ing; tempering; stress-relief annealing; solution annealing

Tube end upsetting and sizing machines (internal and external)

Water quenching Many different types of premium threads

Downstream processing, or: Turning tubes into premium products

Heat treatmentTestingUpsettingPeeling


Tube ends to all relevant standards and specifications

Excellent logistics

Special finishes available (e.g. copper-plated surfaces)

Oilfield tubes for the production of API and premium connections – Couplings for API and premium connections

Modern CNC benches for beveling even thick-walled line pipe to all relevant standards and customer specifications

Added-value products (pre- and finish-machined tubes and tube components)

External machining facilities (grinding, peeling, turning)

Equipment for internal and external shot blasting (up to quality class SA 2 ½), and for upsetting and sizing the tube ends (internally and externally)

Tube end upsetting (e.g. PURE risers)

Cutting API and premium threads

Logistics

Links to the railway system and to Duisport in Duisburg, the largest Eu-ropean inland port, provide us with a variety of haulage options.

Turning Shot-blasting Sizing Threading Beveling Grinding

Vallourec Deutschland GmbHWerk Düsseldorf-RathAm Röhrenwerk 140472 DüsseldorfGermany

www.vallourec.com

A01B

0004

B-15

GB

Further contacts at our website.

The Düsseldorf-Rath Works - Vallourec

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