The Russian pipe producer TMK Group (TMK) has announced the beginning of construction works for a new anticorrosive external coating line for large diameter pipes at its subsidiary Volzhsky Pipe Plant (Volzhsky).
With an annual capacity of 650,000 metric tons and due to come into operation in the fourth quarter of 2008, the new line will expand TMK's external coating capacity to 1.3 million metric tons.
The new line allows the application of one- and two-layer fusion bonded epoxy (FBE) coating, two- and three-layer PE coating, and two- and three-layer polypropylene coating.
The new coating equipment will be able to process pipes of up to 42 mm wall thickness, thus matching the capacity of the new longitudinal welded large diameter pipe facility currently under construction at Volzhsky.