【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】After 13 years of trial production from 2863 to 2025, a breakthrough was achieved, breaking foreign monopolies! China has successfully developed 17-meter ultra-long and ultra-high-pressure steel pipes
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Let’s give praise and encouragement to the achievements made in China’s chemical engineering technology and equipment; your participation in discussions is the greatest encouragement. **********************【Ten Years of Great Progress in Chemical Engineering Equipment】A continuously updated summary post is available – feel free to join the discussions: https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html ***************** Ultra-long and ultra-high-pressure steel pipes are primarily used for transporting oil, natural gas, and other chemical materials that are high in temperature, pressure, or flammability and explosiveness. For a long time, the manufacturing technology for such pipes with lengths over 10 meters has been monopolized by foreign countries. Recently, China managed to develop a 17-meter-long ultra-long and ultra-high-pressure steel pipe through its own efforts. The R&D team at Inner Mongolia Northern Heavy Industry Group spent 13 years working on this project. Improving the purity of the raw materials was the first challenge; starting in 2012, the team developed a series of technical solutions that enabled them to achieve extremely high purity in the raw materials, thus laying a solid foundation for manufacturing these pipes. During the billet-making stage, the team developed an intelligent temperature control system to address the critical issue of temperature control, and they further optimized the processing techniques to produce the first billet that met the requirements. The final steps involved drilling and polishing the billet into a steel pipe. The precision required for drilling is extremely high; after numerous attempts and improvements, it was finally possible to polish the inner surface of the 17-meter-long pipe to a mirror-like smoothness
With the rapid development of high-end chemical projects such as high-pressure polyethylene in China, ultra-long and ultra-high-pressure steel pipes, as the core equipment for these projects, are gaining increasing importance. However, for a long time, our country has faced insurmountable bottlenecks in the manufacturing technology of ultra-long and ultra-high-pressure steel pipes. This bottleneck not only hinders the development of China’s high-end manufacturing sector, but also renders many petrochemical companies unable to compete effectively on the international stage. “The manufacturing technology of ultra-high-pressure steel pipes has always been a challenge for us. ”Zhou Zhongcheng, chief engineer of the Special Steel Division at Beichong Group, said, “There is strict foreign technological blockade, and even if technology is introduced, core equipment and raw materials are often under foreign control. This situation must change!” ”Forging a “silver spear” through hardships.
Forging a “silver spear” through hardships. As a leading enterprise in the fields of special steel and ultra-high pressure technology in China, Beichong Group has achieved significant success in the research, development, and production of high-end pipes for applications in domestic thermal power and nuclear power sectors. Faced with the technical challenges associated with ultra-high-pressure steel pipes, Beichong Group has pooled its key resources to form a specialized R&D team dedicated to overcoming this technical obstacle. The manufacturing of ultra-high-pressure steel pipes involves multiple complex processes, including the purification and smelting of materials, the precise fabrication of extremely long steel pipes, and the precision machining of deep holes. Each of these processes requires high technical standards, and companies need to possess strong technical capabilities as well as extensive production experience; this represents a significant challenge for any enterprise. “Firstly, controlling the purity of the material is a significant challenge; harmful elements in steel such as sulfur and phosphorus must be kept at extremely low levels, otherwise it will severely affect the performance and lifespan of the steel pipes ； Secondly, ensuring the straightness of ultra-long steel pipes is also a technical challenge. Since the length of these pipes exceeds 17 meters, they are prone to bending and deformation during processing, which not only affects the visual quality of the products but can also prevent the equipment from functioning properly. ” Tu Mingjin, director of the Special Steel Research Institute at Beichong Group’s Special Steel Division, said that the operating pressure is as high as 250–350 MPa, the operation takes place at temperatures around 300°C; harmful elements in the steel must be kept at extremely low levels; the material needs to possess good strength and toughness, and its length is usually over 17 meters... Facing numerous challenges, Beichong Group had a difficult journey in developing this technology. “During that period, we devoted almost all of our efforts to research on the purification and smelting of materials,” recalled Hu Yongping, a leader in weapons technology and senior deputy chief designer at Beichong Group’s special steel division. “We tried various smelting processes and deoxidization techniques, but none of them yielded satisfactory results.” Sometimes, even though the surface of the steel produced appears to be in good condition, tests reveal that the levels of harmful elements are too high or that the amount of inclusions is excessive. ” Furthermore, the high-precision machining of the inner hole surface is also a major challenge in the development process. Due to the small inner diameter of the steel pipe and the requirement that the surface roughness be no greater than Ra0.1μm, this imposes extremely high demands on both the processing equipment and the manufacturing processes. The team must develop processing techniques such as deep hole drilling, boring, and honing suitable for ultra-long and ultra-high-pressure steel pipes in order to ensure the quality and performance of the products. In the face of numerous difficulties, the R&D team of the Special Steel Division at Beichong Group stepped up to the challenge and drove breakthroughs through technological innovation. At the same time, they collaborate with numerous universities and research institutions at home and abroad to overcome technical challenges together. Hard work pays off; after going through numerous rounds of challenges, good news kept coming one after another. In the field of research on materials purification and smelting technologies, leveraging decades of experience in specialty steel smelting, the team uses raw materials such as low-element iron and alloys. By combining various multi-element deoxidization techniques involving aluminum, silicon, calcium, etc., along with argon-shielded electroslag remelting processes, they manage to keep the total oxygen content in the steel at an extremely low level. All types of non-metallic inclusions are kept at levels of ≤1.0, thus laying a solid foundation for subsequent processing and manufacturing. In the research on heat treatment technologies for ultra-long rough forgings, they overcame key challenges such as heat processing temperature control, grain-refining annealing, heat treatment, and microstructure regulation, thereby ensuring the uniformity and stability of the forging’s properties. In addition to technological innovation, the team also emphasizes the deep integration of industry, academia, research, and application. They have collaborated with several petrochemical companies to advance the localization of ultra-long and ultra-high-pressure steel pipes for high-pressure polyethylene plants. By gaining a thorough understanding of market demands and customer feedback, the team continuously improves product design and manufacturing processes to ensure that the products better meet users’ needs. Through the joint efforts of the team, Beichong Group has now overcome the technical barriers associated with the manufacturing of ultra-long and ultra-high-pressure steel pipes for high-pressure polyethylene plants. It has successfully produced actual ultra-long and ultra-high-pressure steel pipes with a length of over 17 meters that meet all the required technical specifications, and complete design drawings, production processes, and technical standards have been developed. Moreover, the mass production capability has been established, with plans to achieve large-scale production in the coming years. “Next, we will enhance our brand’s recognition and influence by participating in international exhibitions and collaborating with foreign companies. At the same time, the company will also continue to pay attention to international technological trends and market dynamics, adjusting its product portfolio and marketing strategies in a timely manner to maintain a leading position in the global market. ” Zhang Jianjun, deputy general manager of the Special Steel Division at Beichong Group, said.
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