JFE Steel Develops ERW Pipe with Less Oxide and High Toughness

JFE Steel announced on Tuesday the firm successfully developed electric resistance welded (ERW) steel pipe with less oxide on welded part than conventional ERW steel pipe. Less oxide realizes improvement of ERW pipe’s toughness, as tough as seamless carbon steel pipe. New ERW steel pipe can be used in very low temperature circumstance or substituted for seamless steel pipe or UOE steel pipe.

JFE Steel produces new ERW steel pipe in Keihin area of West Japan Works, mainly for the size with 8-24 inches of outer diameter and 4.8-15.9 millimeters of thickness. The firm plans to start the production also in Chita works in fiscal 2011 ending in March 2012 and to enlarge the productive size to 26-inch outer diameter and 20.6mm thickness. The sales target is 10,000 tonnes per year in fiscal 2011.

Conventional ERW steel pipe cannot be used under very low temperature such in Alaska since oxide on welded part significantly lowers the pipe’s toughness. JFE Steel succeeded in carrying oxide outside of the welded part by equable heating and melting along the direction of steel sheet’s thickness. At the same time, the firm developed continuous and real-time ultrasonic flaw detecting technology for all welding part.

New steel pipe can sustain its toughness under the temperature below minus 50 degrees Celsius compared with conventional minus 20 degrees Celsius. Productivity is higher than seamless steel pipe and UOE steel pipe. Productive cost is expected to become lower by 10-20%. JFE Steel has already sold new ERW steel pipe to North America, the cold area, and to Vietnam as substitute for seamless steel pipe.