Keywords
Citation
(2002), "25 years' experience pays off for Sandvik Steel", Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials, Vol. 49 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/acmm.2002.12849eab.017
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2002, MCB UP Limited
25 years' experience pays off for Sandvik Steel
25 years' experience pays off for Sandvik SteelKeywords: Heat exchangers, Sandvik Steel, Contracts, China
A total of 25 years' service experience with heat exchanger tubes manufactured by Sandvik Steel has led to the company's largest ever order from the fertiliser industry in China.
Valued in excess of MSEK11 (over $1 million), the order is from Luzhou Natural Gas and Chemical Plant (LTH) in the south-west of China and is for heat exchanger tubes to stainless steel specification Sandvik 2RE69. As a result of the investment, the LTH plant will have a daily output of 2,000 tonnes of urea.
Sandvik's 2RE69 tubes were originally installed at the plant in 1975, although it was not until 1997 that the first indications were received of a possible heat exchanger replacement. Ongoing and close contact between Sandvik Steel and LTH for supplies of replacement tubes for maintenance purposes over a 25-year period, the good experience with the long service life of the original tubes, combined with Sandvik's technical support, reportedly helped in the decision for Sandvik 2RE69 tubes to be used for the replacement heat exchanger.
Sandvik 2RE69 is described as a fully austenitic stainless steel with very low carbon and impurity contents. Developed primarily by Sandvik to meet the severely corrosive conditions in the urea industry, the steel is stated to have excellent resistance to corrosion in urea carbamate and to intergranular corrosion. It also said to have high resistance to pitting and crevice corrosion and good weldability.