Mannesmann Stainless Tubes (MST), a company of Salzgitter AG, working with its long-standing partner SMS group (www.sms-group.com) has commissioned its largest-ever cold pilger mill (KPW) at its Remscheid location. The KPW 370 L (Lanchester mass balancing system) is a further addition to MST’s production portfolio for seamless stainless steel tubes.
All over the world, MST operates numerous cold pilger mills of various sizes as well as several roll grinders from SMS group and ranks as one of the leading manufacturers of seamless stainless steel and nickel-based tubes for an array of applications across both standard specification and premium product requirements.
Compared with drawing and hydroforming, MST achieves closer tolerances by using the cold pilger process, which boasts higher process reliability and cross-section reductions of up to 80 percent at the same time. In order to meet the high quality requirements in terms of microstructure, strength, outside diameter, and wall thickness tolerances,
When designing the plant, special attention was paid to the rapid conversion of the rolling mill to enable production of different sizes. As a result, a size change can be completed in less than three hours. To achieve this high flexibility, the plant was equipped with a motorized roll gap adjustment system and a changing car – for the partially automated, lateral replacement of the chock assemblies. The special design of the mill stand also allows MST to use rolling tools from a cold pilger mill supplied by SMS group that MST has been operating since 1956.
Remscheid was where the Mannesmann brothers rolled the world’s first seamless steel tube in 1886. Today, the new cold pilger mill built at this historic location represents yet another milestone in the partnership between the two companies, SMS group and MST, which has flourished since the early 20th century.
Courtesy of Mannesmann Stainless Tubes.