TMK IPSCO celebrated the opening of its new heat treat facility Thursday at its Baytown Works in Baytown, Texas.
The facility is designed to heat treat and finish primarily seamless tubing and casing sizes from 2 3/8 inches in diameter to 7 5/8 inches in diameter, placing TMK IPSCO at the forefront of tube and pipe heat treating production.
The new facility has an annual production capacity of 85,000 tons of quenched and tempered products certified to API 5CT standards and has also been designed to produce an additional 15,000 tons annually with minor upgrades if market demand increases. The new heat treat facility will also serve to complete the existing Baytown facility's pipe upsetting and threading processes.
All processes at the new facility, including the hot end of the mill and the finishing processes, are directly linked together and are highly automated. Jim Tregenza, Vice President of Operations for TMK IPSCO, said in the company's press release, "This will result in higher product quality, improved productivity and increased employee safety compared to other mills of this type."
TMK IPSCO is a leading producer of energy tubular and operates in North America as a division of TMK, the largest pipe producer in Russia and one of the top three producers worldwide.