Hexagonal Tubes for a New Customer

At the request of a customer, the Düsseldorf-Rath tube mill has produced the first-ever hexagonal MSH sections for a special application. This was orchestrated within the shortest possible time by an outstanding concerted effort on the part of application development engineers and their colleagues in production at the Rath rolling mill. On the way to these individually “shaped tubes”, the Vallourec teams had to reorganize and individualize each single process from tool manufacturing to certification.

For decades, the product name “MSH section” is an industry standard for hot rolled hollow sections in circular, rectangular or square shape destined for construction purposes. All the more unusual was this product enquiry from a worldwide operating specialist for large-scale infrastructure projects. Needed were “hexagonal” MSH-sections. This company's new, pioneering system development is largely based on hexagonal hollow sections with both extremely close dimensional tolerances and an outstanding stress-strain behavior.
The affirmative reply came within less than one week. During this extremely tight time frame, Vallourec determined precisely if and how the product request could be complied with, how long it would take and how much it would cost. This was a challenge that could only be mastered through the successful collaboration of Sales, Application Development and the process teams in the mill. Special rolling stands and tools were developed within 8 weeks and the first hexagonal sections produced, which led to an order for the project requirements within Vallourec after a successful acceptance by the customer.