ENERGY-SAVING TECHNOLOGIES IN PIPE PRODUCTION

Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises with a full cycle have fuel costs at the level of 1.4÷1.6 tons of conventional fuel per ton of produced products, while the share of energy costs in the cost of rolled products is approximately 40%. At the same time, at enterprises in Japan and the USA, these costs are 0.7÷1.0 tons of conventional fuel per ton of product. One of the current problems of Ukraine is the shortage of primary energy carriers, in particular natural gas, which limits the energy consumption of enterprises. The problem is exacerbated by the gradual increase in the cost of energy carriers (natural gas, electricity), as well as other reasons that reduce the competitiveness of Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises. The purpose of this work is to consider known technical solutions for energy saving in rolling production, mainly in the production of hot-rolled seamless pipes, for further improvement of pipe production. Based on the analysis of energy saving methods in the production of hot-rolled pipes, the main direction of energy saving in rolling production is noted - this is the construction of rolling mills near the continuous casting machine of the billet. This work considers such areas of energy consumption reduction as: hot rolling of billets in the heating furnaces of pipe rolling units; saving natural gas during heating and heat treatment; direct piercing of continuously cast billets on the slanting roll mill of the pilgrim unit; thermomechanical processing of pipes with rolling heating. The possibilities of hot-rolling of continuously cast billets entering the pipe rolling shop with a 5-12” pilgrim mill of PJSC “Interpipe Niko Tube” were analyzed. A new technology of using the heat of a pre-deformed billet for further rolling of pipes on the same mill was proposed on the pipe rolling shop 200 of PJSC “Interpipe Niko Tube”. The use of the technology of hot-rolling of continuously cast billets is also possible in other shops of PJSC “Interpipe Niko Tube”. To improve the organization of work on the development of the technology of hot-rolling of billets, it is possible to organize a metal preparation shop with wide technological capabilities. The introduction of such technologies as direct piercing of billets on the cross-rolling mill of the pipe rolling shop with a 5-12” pilgrim mill, thermomechanical processing of pipes with rolling heating on various pipe rolling shops will contribute to the reduction of energy consumption.