At Montanstahl, we provided special structural sections in stainless steel 316L, specifically beams, channels and angle bars, which were used as stiffeners for the tower producing prills of the Orica Kooragang Island fertilizing plant in New South Wales, Australia.
Profile: |
Beams, Channels, Angle Bars |
Material grade: |
SS 316L |
Execution: |
Laser welded |
Industry served: |
Petrochem, Chemical & Pharmaceutical |
Destination: |
Indonesia / Australia |
The origins of the project
A renowned Indonesian engineering and construction company designed this tall prilling tower and manufactured it in segments at their construction site on the island of Batam, just across Singapore.
The structure of the tower was divided into several sections that were built in different stages. For this reason, we had to supply the various stainless steel structural sections according to different delivery times.
Special steel profiles are the perfect solution in the petrochemical industry
At Montanstahl we strive every day to offer the best solutions to meet the needs of our customers, thus by providing a highly personalized service. In the case of the fertilizer plant, we were asked to supply different types of structural solutions that could be used as reinforcing elements for this very large and complex tower.
We supplied the first lot within a very tight and urgent timeframe, swiftly sending out an initial shipment with standard 6m long sections, which we had on stock. Warehouse availability is crucial, especially on these occasions when on-time delivery is a must! In fact, in this way we were able to avoid delays and immediately start production of the further required profiles, which in contrast to the first order, were custom sections and thus had to be manufactured from scratch based on the customer’s technical drawing.
Waste material optimization to supply tailor made laser welded profiles
When we supply customized profiles, we perform a material optimisation to establish the best raw material matrix in order to reduce valuable waste (i.e. scrap) as much as possible. The lower the amount of material waste resulting from off-cuts and non-standard lengths, the lower the cost of the custom sections for the client. After we optimized the production to generate as least scrap as possible, the different 316L stainless steel coils in the required thicknesses were decoiled and cut to the desired lengths.
After that, we carried out the entire laser welding production process: the sheets were laser cut into strips, which were then assembled and laser welded into the section’s shape. The structural laser fused sections were ultimately straightened, shot blasted, cut to length and pickled.
Securely packaged and boxed up, the beams, channels and angle bars were stored in warehouse, ready to be picked up and installed in Singapore.
Nowadays Orica Kooragang Island is one of the most important petrochemical plant all over Australia, producing approximately 400,000 tonnes of industrial grade ammonium nitrate per annum onsite.
If you are an expert in the petrochemical industry and you are looking for special stainless steel solutions suitable for your processing plant, don’t hesitate to contact us!