Longitudinally welded stainless steel tubes for heavy-duty Service: Transmission lines for use in railway construction passed the test
The welded tubes manufactured by Schoeller Werk have successfully passed the approval tests as transmission in railway applications. With these tubes, the customer will get products with the same hardness specifications but at about 50 percent lower costs. The first such tubes are scheduled to be delivered in early 2014 within the framework of long-term supply agreement.
Recently, Schoeller Werk received the first order for longitudinally welded tubes to be used as transmission in trains. In the past, only seamless tubes were used for this application. As prices are significantly lower and lead times much shorter, the customer will change to welded tubulars as transmission pipes in braking systems.
Schoeller Werk had conducted comprehensive tests on five kilometers of sample tubes at the customer“s facilities. In these tests, Schoeller Werk proved that longitudinally welded tubes are equal to seamless tubes in terms of mechanical properties and surface quality. The result is a multi-year supply agreement.
Brake lines are safety-critical equipment. Therefore, the customer had defined exacting specifications for the mechanical and chemical properties, the tolerances and the surface quality. Schoeller Werk meets these specifications without exception.
The new tubes are made of the same material as those used in the past: grade 1.4301 with an elevated nickel content. With a weld strength reduction factor of 1.0, the Schoeller tubes feature the same strength value as seamless tubes of identical dimensions.
The contract provides for the supply of ten different sizes with outside diameters between 6 and 28 mm. Schoeller Werk is one of very few manufacturers capable of making the complete size range in its own production plant. All products the customer needs will come from a single supplier – and be „made in Germany“.
Stefan Brilling, Manager Industrial Sales at Schoeller Werk, sees clear cost advantages for his customers: „Many engineers still consider seamless tubes as sacred cows. Yet, our longitudinally welded tubes have already proved to be successful in many applications, including highly demanding and safety-critical ones. But this recent order speaks for itself: Featuring a weld strength reduction factor of 1.0, our tubes can be installed without having to make any changes to the design. Tubes of the same dimensions provide the same strength but cost much less.“
Schoeller Werk at Tube 2014 in Düsseldorf, Germany:
Hall 03 stand 03/G03
About Schoeller Werk
Schoeller Werk GmbH & Co. KG, based in Hellenthal in the German Eifel region, is a leading manufacturer of welded stainless steel tubes and pipes. Every year, the almost 900 employees produce about 100 million meters of stainless steel tubulars on 100 welding lines. The products are used in a wide range of applications, including domestic appliances and medical technology, the automotive industry, power plants, sea water desalination and off-shore applications.
Since its foundation in 1827 at the present location in Hellenthal, the company has been family-owned. As early as in 1550, one of the ancestors, Joris Schoeller, had bought first stakes in a ducal iron works in the German town of Gemünd. Throughout the company history, Schoeller“s entrepreneurial activities have always been guided by a highly innovative spirit. As early as in the middle of the 19th century, Schoeller Werk pioneered the automated manufacture of nails and rivets from wire. Less than one century later, in 1959, the works in Hellenthal starts up tungsten inert-gas (TIG) welding lines for the production of longitudinally welded stainless steel tubes and pipes.
Since 1965, Schoeller Werk has been making TIG welded tubular products of austenitic Cr/Ni steels featuring a weld joint factor of 1.0. Thus, the welded seam was no longer inferior to the tube material – an achievement that, once again, put Schoeller Werk in a prominent pioneering position.
Kontakt
Schoeller Werk GmbH & Co. KG
Roland Mertens
Im Kirschseiffen
53940 Hellenthal (Eifel)/Germany
+49.2482.81-129
info@schoellerwerk.de
http://www.schoellerwerk.de
Pressekontakt:
VIP-Kommunikation
Regina Reinhardt
Süsterfeldstr. 83
52072 Aachen
+49.241.89468-24
reinhardt@vip-kommunikation.de
http://www.vip-kommunikation.de
