Smooth flowing technology TMK-ARTROM

SMOOTH FLOWING TECHNOLOGY

TMK-ARTROM is a leading Romanian pipes and tubes manufacturer with a significant share of the European market for industrial seamless tubes. The company is part of the global TMK Group, which is a leader in the design and manufacture of tubular products for the oil and gas industry. The company continues to expand and invest in new technology as it leads the field in new product development. Philip Yorke reports.

TMK is one of the world’s leading producers of tubular products for the oil and gas industry. Since 2009 it has ranked first in the world by volume of pipes delivered. The company’s pipe shipments in 2015 totalled almost four million tonnes.

TMK-ARTROM is a public company listed on Bucharest StockExchange and TMK Group holds the majority of the shares. TMK-ARTROM is located in the south of Romania in Slatina City. It specialises in the production of industrial seamless steel pipes which are mainly for industrial applications, from carbon, low alloy and alloy steel, to hot rolling, cold drawn pipes for mechanical applications. The company makes pipes for the automotive industry, for high temperature boilers and pipes for the oil industry. In addition, TMKARTROM produces pipes for water and gas installations, as well as grinding pipes and roller burnished pipes for cylinder production. TMK-ARTROM products are fully certified to all relevant ISO and EN quality standards.

TMK-ARTROM is also the operational and management headquarters for the TMK European Division, to which has recently been added the management of the TMK Group’s industrial pipes business throughout the Americas. New technology adding value

TMK-ARTROM has consistently invested in new technology and recently commissioned a new state-of-the-art production unit, which is able to offer customers inside-skived and roller-burnished pipes for the production of hydraulic cylinders and outside grinding pipes for the manufacture of piston rods. This is in addition to offering precision-cut pipes at fixed lengths. The high quality tubular products produced on the company’s new line can be utilised in the automotive industry and also to manufacture hydraulic cylinders used in hoisting machinery. This is in addition to sophisticated industrial equipment for the automotive and avionics industries. Currently the company is implementing other projects aimed at improving quality and increasing the added value of its products by means of advanced heat treatments and other specialist manufacturing operations on its site.

The new production line has a high level of automation and integration in the company’s ERP software and will be able to provide a much wider range of Q&T pipes. This is an ultra-modern and flexible heat treatment line for heavy wall pipes that includes on-line hot straightening, which is able to perform all types of heat treatment required for the production of high-tech industrial pipes.

Neptun SA

The specific operating conditions of metallurgical equipment, such as high power, variable load, big static and dynamic forces, ask for properly designed mechanical transmissions. That is why, besides our standard production we have always stayed beside TMK and offered them special and custom-made gears, gearboxes and technical solutions to fully comply with their specific needs both for the production process and auxiliary equipment like traveling cranes and so on.

We are proud to count TMK among our customers, end users or OEM’s from all over the world, activating in the metallurgical industry and we are focused on developing our partnership more and more.

Increased productivity

The company has a total production capacity of 200,000 tonnes per year and during the past few years it has upgraded its technological flow. This has been done to enable it to produce a wider range of seamless steel pipes with outside diameters ranging from15.88mm up to 250mm, and with wall thicknesses ranging from 1.5mm to 60mm.

The raw materials for these products is produced as continuously casted round billets at the steel company TMK-RESITA,TMK’s wholly-owned plant in Romania where a wide variety of high-grade steels are produced. At this plant the products can be vacuum degassed and impurities eliminated. In addition, nitrogen and hydrogen can also be greatly reduced to ensure the products meet the most stringent demands of the world’s automotive industries.

The plant produces billets for tubes and heavy round profiles. A few years ago, TMK-RESITA launched a new continuous casting line for blanks with a capacity of 450,000 tonnes per year, and the company followed this with a new EAF (Electric Arc Furnace) with a capacity of 110 tonnes. The production flow today consists of an electric arc furnace, ladle furnace, vacuum system and a continuous casting machine.

TMK-RESITA and TMK-ARTROM have implemented and certified an efficient integrated quality management system that is planned according to ISO 9001, integrated with its environmental management system according to ISO 14001 and work safety ISO 18001. The unique, integrated management system for both facilities is continuously planned, maintained and developed through a process of ongoing improvement and is periodically independently audited and evaluated. Both companies operate in a fully integrated manner, creating a sole industrial complex for TMK in Romania.

Leading the field

For many years TMK has enjoyed strong market positions in the seamless pipes sector with its sales representing around 10 per cent of the worldwide market for this product. TMK’s clients include leading gas companies, such as Shell, ENI, Total, Exxon Mobile, Occidental Petroleum, Gazprom, Saudi Aramco and Lukoil among many others. The company’s major presence in world markets is secured by its extensive sales network that covers virtually all main global oil and gas producing regions in the US, Canada, Russia and the CIS, the Middle East, North and sub-Saharan Africa, as well as South East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. It operates more than 30 manufacturing sites in the US, Canada, Romania, Oman and Kazakhstan. n

For further details of TMK-ARTROM’s high-tech seamless tubes and pipes visit: www.tmk-artrom.eu