<p>Russian steel & pipe maker United Metallurgical Company OMK has improved the technological process for manufacturing pipeline valves weighing more than 2 tonnes for the oil and gas industry. Now, at the OMK Armstal plant in Blagoveshchensk in Bashkortostan, one of the largest manufacturers of pipeline valves in Russia, large-sized steel castings, which are subject to increased requirements, undergo a hardening procedure to give them enhanced mechanical properties. To give products of large dimensions additional properties, a unique 18 cubic meters hardening bath was installed in the steel shop of the plant. It is designed and manufactured taking into account the smallest nuances: cold water, when immersed in a casting heated to 1000 degree Celsius, does not boil due to continuous circulation. The bath is equipped with an original quenching fluid mixing system - hot water leaves and cold water enters, which improves the properties of the metal being quenched. Hardening provides increased strength characteristics and toughness of steel at sub-zero temperatures.</p><p>Hardening is the basis of heat treatment of metal. For hardening the vast majority of steels, non-ferrous metals and alloys, so-called hardening baths are used. This is a container that is filled with a liquid working medium (water, oil, salt solutions or polymers). In a bath with a constantly circulating liquid, metal products heated from 800 to 1150 degree Celsius are cooled.</p><p>This is due to the fact that the key customers of the OMK Blagoveshchensk plant - Transneft, Gazprom, Bashneft, etc are developing more and more fields in Siberia and Yamal, where pipeline valves are needed from materials resistant to aggressive media and extremely low temperatures of up to minus 60 degree Celsius. Because of this, the requirements for the mechanical properties of valves are increased.</p>
<p>Russian steel & pipe maker United Metallurgical Company OMK has improved the technological process for manufacturing pipeline valves weighing more than 2 tonnes for the oil and gas industry. Now, at the OMK Armstal plant in Blagoveshchensk in Bashkortostan, one of the largest manufacturers of pipeline valves in Russia, large-sized steel castings, which are subject to increased requirements, undergo a hardening procedure to give them enhanced mechanical properties. To give products of large dimensions additional properties, a unique 18 cubic meters hardening bath was installed in the steel shop of the plant. It is designed and manufactured taking into account the smallest nuances: cold water, when immersed in a casting heated to 1000 degree Celsius, does not boil due to continuous circulation. The bath is equipped with an original quenching fluid mixing system - hot water leaves and cold water enters, which improves the properties of the metal being quenched. Hardening provides increased strength characteristics and toughness of steel at sub-zero temperatures.</p><p>Hardening is the basis of heat treatment of metal. For hardening the vast majority of steels, non-ferrous metals and alloys, so-called hardening baths are used. This is a container that is filled with a liquid working medium (water, oil, salt solutions or polymers). In a bath with a constantly circulating liquid, metal products heated from 800 to 1150 degree Celsius are cooled.</p><p>This is due to the fact that the key customers of the OMK Blagoveshchensk plant - Transneft, Gazprom, Bashneft, etc are developing more and more fields in Siberia and Yamal, where pipeline valves are needed from materials resistant to aggressive media and extremely low temperatures of up to minus 60 degree Celsius. Because of this, the requirements for the mechanical properties of valves are increased.</p>
