Alaa International Contracting, a member of the Alas Group of Companies (AFI), Dammam, recently completed the re-erection of PMT-UOE pipe mill equipment and erection of new equipment for the submerged arc welded (SAW) steel pipes plant project in the industrial city of Jubail.
The SAW steel pipes plant, owned by the Arabian Pipes Company, Riyadh, will produce steel pipes of 16-inch to 48-inch outside diameter with an average annual capacity of 180,000 tonnes per year (tpy).
“It will be one of the most modern steel pipe mills in the region for producing high-quality, large-diameter, heavy-wall, longitudinal-seam submerged arc welded pipes using the UOE forming process and cold mechanical expansion,” an Alaa spokesman said.
Alaa International Contracting Establishment carried out the electro-mechanical construction of the complete plant under sub-contract from DSD Industrieanlagen GmbH, Germany. The construction included 5,000 tonnes of equipment, seven overhead cranes, approximately 40 km of hydraulic piping work, electrical cabling etc with a peak manpower requirement of 150 craftsmen and total invested man-hours of 250,000.
The plant equipment originally came from Japan, USA and Western Europe.
The machines installed included the Plate Edge Miller machine, Crimp press, ‘U’-press, crimping press, ‘O’-press, root welder, inside and outside welding machines, ultrasonic and X-Ray inspection systems, expander machine, pipe hydrotesting machine, pipe end cropper machine, pipe end facer, Pipe electric drives including motors of various sizes, hydraulic pumps and power packs, among other equipment
“The erection of the heavy machines, some weighing as much as 1,500 tonnes, such as the ‘O’-press were a great challenge for the AFI technicians specially in view of the fact that they had to be leveled and aligned to an accuracy of two thousandth of an inch,” the spokesman said.
The AFI team worked tirelessly for nine months and completed the project in December ahead of schedule.
“The re-erection of PMT-UOE pipe mill equipment is another step forward in the history of Alaa International Contracting Establishment, which is establishing itself as a major contractor undertaking turnkey electro-mechanical construction works of new plants,” said the spokesman.
