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Success stories

Europipe

Our largest HELICOIL® thread inserts ever convinced Europipe technically and economically with decreased costs by extending the life of their tools.

Contents
 

Extended life expectancy

An avoidable cost factor: rapid thread wear.

The production of large-diameter pipes leads to a huge strain on the thread of the expanders’ tension rods. With HELICOIL® thread inserts, the service life of the tool could be elongated.

Initial situation

 

High degree of wear

During the production of large-diameter pipes, dual-head expanders are used for the last forming process.
By means of this expander, the welded pipes are gradually enlarged in order to achieve the accuracy grade and the required geometrical data. Based on the pipe features such as diameter, wall thickness and steel grade, the expansion rate may vary between 0.8 % and 1.5 %. The permanent strain of up to 1,500 tons tensile load caused the thread wear at the expander's drawbar. The resulting costs called for a lasting improvement.

Customer profile

Industry
Oil, Gas, Chemistry

Headquarters
Mülheim an der Ruhr / Germany

Established
1991

 

Solution

 

HELICOIL® thread insert

Heavy loads call for excellent answers. Together with EUROPIPE, an ideal solution has been developed. Here, a HELICOIL® thread insert is screwed into the tension rod nut for effecting an improved dispersal of the preload force during the mechanical expansion. An increased fatigue strength of the thread guarantees a significantly longer service life of the mechanical expander.

  • Fatigue strength without HELICOIL® 600 to 950 t
  • Fatigue strength with HELICOIL® 750 to 1200 t

For EUROPIPE, we have produced our largest HELICOIL® thread inserts of all time, measuring
204 x 16 x 282 mm, 260 x 20 x 330 mm and 320 x 25 x 420 mm.

 

Expander tension rod

Mechanical pipe expansion

The HELICOIL® thread insert is screwed on.

HELICOIL® before installation

Result

 

Extended life expectancy of the tools

We work closely with our customers to develop tailor-made solutions. In this case as well.
HELICOIL® inserts create wear-resistant and high-precision threads. With HELICOIL® thread inserts, the service life of the tool could be elongated.

Customer benefits

  • Constant load and stress distribution
  • Thread reinforcement
  • Quality improvement

Downloads

Find out more: related downloads.

If you would like to know more, simply download the relevant brochures.

Title Language Version File Download
Success story
EUROPIPE advances into new dimensions with HELICOIL®!
English 0316/15.02 353 kB / PDF
English 0316/15.02 353 kb / PDF
HELICOIL®
Metric thread inserts for metals
English 0100/16.02 2969 kB / PDF
English 0100/16.02 2969 kb / PDF

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