1.Plug rolling production
The production equipment consists of punching machine, automatic pipe rolling machine, coiling machine, sizing machine and reducing machine. The round tube is inserted into the hollow of the thick-walled tube, and the axes of the two rollers form an oblique angle with the rolling line. In recent years, the inclination angle has increased from 6° to 12° to 13° to 17°, increasing the speed of the punch. When producing structural seamless pipe with a diameter greater than 250mm, secondary perforation is used to reduce the thickness of the hollow billet wall. New technologies have also been developed to enhance the perforation process and improve the quality of the capillary.
2. Continuous rolling production
The production equipment includes punching machine, continuous rolling mill, and tension reduction machine. The round billet is pierced into a hollow billet, then inserted into the mandrel, and continuously rolled by 7 to 9 two-roll mills. After rolling, the mandrel bar is taken out and reheated to reduce tension. In 2014, the annual output of 140mm continuous rolling mills is 0.4 to 600,000 tons, which is 2 to 4 times that of plug mills. The characteristics of this unit are suitable for the production of steel pipes with a diameter of 168mm or less. However, the equipment investment is large, the installed capacity is large, and the processing and manufacturing are complex.
3. Three-roll rolling production
Three-roll rolling production is mainly used to produce thick-walled seamless steel pipes with high dimensional accuracy. The wall thickness accuracy of the seamless steel pipe produced by this manufacturing process can reach plus or minus 5%, and the pipe accuracy is twice that of the seamless steel pipe produced by other methods. This manufacturing technique developed rapidly with the invention of the new three-high skew rolling mill in the 1960s. The new type of rolling mill is characterized by rapidly rotating the inlet rotary rack to change the expansion angle of the tail, thereby preventing the triangle from appearing at the tail, and expanding the ratio of the outer diameter to the wall thickness of the production varieties from 12 to 35, which can not only produce thin-walled seamless welded steel pipes , but also can improve production capacity.
4. Extrusion tube production
The peeled round base is first perforated or expanded, then heated by induction heating or a salt bath, coated with lubricant, and loaded into the extruder. The metal is squeezed into the pipe through the circular gap between the mandrel and the tip of the pen. This manufacturing process is mainly used for the production of superalloy tubes, specialty tubes, composite tubes and non-ferrous metal tubes. It has a wide range of production but low volumes. The production of extruded tubes has also grown in recent years due to improvements in die materials, lubricants and extrusion speeds.
5. Cold rolling (cold drawing) production
This manufacturing process is used to produce small-diameter precision-shaped thin-walled low-carbon steel pipes. It is characterized by the use of multi-stage cycle manufacturing technology. In the 1960s, it began to develop in the direction of high speed, multi-line, long stroke and long tube blank. In addition, small roller mills have also been developed, mainly for the production of precision tubes with a thickness of less than 1mm. The cold rolling equipment is complex, the tool processing is difficult, and the specification conversion is not flexible. And usually a combined process of cold rolling and cold drawing is used, that is, cold rolling is used to reduce the wall thickness to obtain larger deformation, and cold drawing technology is used to obtain various specifications.