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SMS Meer to Upgrade, Double Capacity of BHEL Seamless Tube Plant
02/23/2011 - Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited has placed an order with SMS Meer to modernize a 25-year-old push bench plant into a modern, high-performance Cross Piercing Elongating plant.
Indian-based Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has placed an order with SMS Meer to modernize a 25-year-old push bench plant.
SMS Meer will upgrade the existing plant to a modern, high-performance Cross Piercing Elongating (CPE) plant. The upgrade will double BHEL's capacity to around 100,000 tonnes and extend its product range. The conversion to modern CPE technology will result in more cost-effective and energy efficient production processes, as material losses will be reduced by some 65%.
The new CPE plant comprises the rotary hearth furnace, new piercing mill, push bench, detaching mill, extended re-heat furnace, modernized stretch-reducing mill, new rotating saw and new cooling bed. The design and manufacture of the mechanical components will be completed jointly by teams from SMS Meer, in Mönchengladbach, Germany, and Kolkata, India. The on-site plant erection and commissioning will be carried out by BHEL under the supervision of SMS Meer. Start of production on the new plant is scheduled for the end of 2012.
The maximum shell length on the upgraded plant will increase to 16 meter, and finished tube diameter will range from 26.7 to 159.00 mm. In addition to carbon steels the plant will now also produce low- and high-alloy steels.
With the new seamless tube plant, the company can meet the rising demand for boiler tubes for power stations in India. “Following the revamp, BHEL will be able to manufacture extremely robust boiler tubes,” explained Hubert Strank, Project Manager at SMS Meer. “These enhance the efficiency of the boiler and demand for them is therefore becoming stronger and stronger.”
High-alloy materials such as 10CrMo910 or T91 will be used as feedstock for the upgraded plant. In the future, BHEL will be able to develop new products in-house, from the production of seamless tubes to the boilers themselves.
SMS Meer GmbH is a company of the SMS group, which is, under SMS Holding GmbH, a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering for the steel and nonferrous metals industry. It comprises the two Business Areas SMS Siemag and SMS Meer. In 2010, some 9000 employees worldwide generated a turnover of EUR 3.1 bn.
