Background
ASME SA516 Grade 70 / ASTM A516 Grade 70 is Boiler Quality (BQ) Steel Grade which is used to manufacture boilers and pressure vessels in petroleum, power station, boiler, chemical and other such industries. It is normally available only in plate form. Also, very few Steel Manufacturers rolls this grade of steel in 5mm and 6mm thickness. So, as manufacturer of Limpet Coil, we manufacture SA516 Gr.70 Limpet Coil in segments as per availability of plate length.
Challenges
Manufacturing Limpet Coil from plates is a tedious process. Following variables make the process difficult:
Craftsmanship - Shearing and/or plasma cutting of 6/12 m long plate inherits variation in the width of the slit. Further, in case of plasma cutting, chances of warping / bending is high. These causes variation in the diameter of the limpet coil while forming. At our customer's end, it shows up in laborious fixing of the limpet and as inferior aesthetics or lower craftsmanship.
Time consuming process - Forming limpet from plates is a slow process compared to forming limpet from coil. Machine productivity is reduced to 40-50% when plates are used.
Handling of the slits - Handling of 6/12 m long slits is riskier compared to handling a 100 m long coil due to the free end.
Butt welds - At the end of each 6/12 m slit, butt weld joint is required to continuously feed the material to the machine and also to generate required helix. Sometimes during coiling the limpet, the joint breaks due to variable expansion and compression causing smaller segments of coil.
Opportunity
We received an inquiry for around 14-15 MT of Limpet Coil of 100NB in 6mm thickness in SA516 Grade70, from one of our esteemed client in Gujarat. The requirement was for a fast track project and limpet coils were needed in short period.
They say, necessity is the mother of invention. Due to the time constraint, we had to find an out of the box solution. We went to our supplier to look for possibility to get the material manufactured in coil form. And our supplier could convince the steel manufacturer to produce the material in coil form and get it to us in minimum time.
The Win-Win Story
So, for the first time, we received SA516 Grade 70 material in coil form.
And we could manufacture and supply the order within required time frame with better quality.
We are very thankful to our customer for the opportunity, to our supplier for their support & the extra effort. We are also thankful to the steel manufacturer for their flexibility and service.
Limpet Size: LMC 100 x 6 mm
Vessel OD: 3050 mm
Quantity: 1650 meters
Dispatched to: Surat/Panoli, Gujarat
Full Coil Photograph
Coil Sticker
Continuous Limpet Coil
Continuous Limpet Coil
Comments