Helical Submerged Arc Welded (HSAW) Pipe Manufacturing&Equipment Configuration

This paper is based on 24 years of experience of the author in Spiral Pipe manufacturing and Anti-Corrosion coatings in Line pipes. Line pipes are generally used for transportation of Oil, Gas, Water, Chemicals etc. throughout the world. There are various different methods and techniques of Carbon steel Line pipe manufacturing a to name a few-Helical Spiral Pipes (H-SAW), Longitudinal Pipes (L-SAW), Electric Resistance Welding Pipes (ERW). Here we are discussing on the Spiral Pipe Manufacturing process which is mostly suitable for API 5L grade pipes from 16 inches outside diameter to 60 inches outside diameter for API pipes and 16 inches outer diameter to 120 inches outside diameter, Details of Spiral pipe manufacturing and related equipment (Spiral Pipe Mill) has been discussed. The HSAW pipe manufacturing requires an Spiral Pipemill and related downline equipments like bevelling, hydrotester, Ultrasonic testing and X-ray radiography. In this paper only Spiral pipemill parts have been described. A Spiral Pipemill is divided into major three sections like Entry Line section, Formation section& Exit Bench Section. Each of these sections have various equipments in assembly which all together make spiral pipe manufacturing possible. Overall a spiral pipe manufacturing is a three roll-bending process and the manufacturing of Line pipes in a Spiral Pipe Plant is semi-automatic. Spiral Pipes have gained lots of usage in pipe industry for low costs and ease of manufacturing through Hot Rolled Coils. In India there are many such players in Spiral Pipe Industry like PSL, Welspun, Man, Ratnamani, Surya, Jindal to name a few.