Tenaris has successfully completed a planned maintenance project at its industrial centre in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, with no lost time.
The preventative maintenance work, an investment of $3 million USD, included more than 70 scheduled activities concentrated in the hot rolling mill – a key part of the manufacturing process where solid steel billets are transformed into pipe.
Approximately 150 local contractors from Melback, ThorCan, Stobie, RF Contracting, ISM, Rector, Novenco, NATT, Wajax, Steel Speed, GFL and SIS joined by 40 Tenaris employees carried out the three-week long project. The range of activities during this project included repairs to the rotatory hearth furnace, which heats up the steel bars; the reheat furnace, which heats the pipe uniformly; and the stretch reducing mill, the process in which a pipe’s outside diameter is reduced.
“There is a great deal of planning and coordination among our operations, maintenance, health, safety and environment teams, and contractors to ensure full alignment for a safe execution. All activities we set out to accomplish were completed successfully and safely,” said Tenaris Operations Sr Director Jacobo Montaño.
Planning for the scope of work started earlier in the year and included support from Tenaris teams from Argentina, Italy, Mexico and the United States, with the expert technical knowledge of the maintenance required in the hot rolling mill. Leading with safety is a priority at Tenaris, where all taking part in the maintenance project totalled over 110 hours of training, focused on confined space and HSE with the hot rolling mill operations team.
Tenaris routinely performs preventative maintenance across its operations to ensure equipment and systems operate safely and as required. The next maintenance intervention will take place in the fall
of this year.
