IPSCO Koppel in Final Stages of $45 Million Upgrade at Pennsylvania Seamless Steel Tube Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--IPSCO Koppel Tubulars Corporation (Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania), a division of IPSCO Incorporated (Lisle, Illinois) is in the final stages of a $45 million upgrade to its seamless steel tube plant in Ambridge, Pennsylvania.

The "punch" list, the final checkout, is all that's left to ensure that the project, which included modifications and new equipment to the 266,000-ton-per-year seamless steel tube mill, is on track and performing to the standards that have been set. The expected results, along with streamlined operations, include approximately 50,000 additional tons per year. IPSCO Koppel selected J.R. Johnson Engineering Incorporated (Cleveland, Ohio) to provide its services throughout the project, which Industrial Info first reported in 2006.

Among the equipment that was added and/or had upgrades were some of the furnaces used at the plant. The listing of furnaces used at this plant is extensive. The quench and temper furnaces are used in the final finishing process, helping to attain proper physical properties. The heating/reheat furnaces are used to heat treat steel to bring it to a uniform temperature suitable for finishing. Upsetter furnaces are smaller units used to heat treat the ends of the tubular products to the correct temperature before their upsetting. A normalizing furnace is used to refine the steel grain structure to relieve stresses induced by hot or cold working and to improve the mechanical properties of the steel. All the heat treating furnaces at the Koppel's Ambridge facility are natural-gas-fired combustion units.

It's easy to understand that the final days of such a broad project would have a final checkout period that is so important. A conventional construction contract normally calls for the contractor and/or engineering firm to decide when the project has reached a point of significant completion and a pre-final inspection is made. At this point, the project receives a comprehensive inspection and the punch list of uncompleted or unsatisfactory work items. It's normal not to receive final payment until the list of items are addressed and remedied to the owners' satisfaction. The expression "punch list" comes from a time-honored practice of punching a hole in the margin of the final construction document, next to each of the items or projects on the list. The punch was used to identify that the work was completed for that particular job. So until all the unfinished items are "punched," there is still work to be completed.

IPSCO operates eight pipe-making facilities across western Canada and in the United States. The plants are in Regina, Saskatchewan; Calgary and Red Deer, Alberta; Comanche, Iowa; Geneva, Nebraska; and Blytheville, Arkansas. Through its acquired subsidiary, IPSCO Koppel Tubulars Corporation, the company also operates seamless tubular products ranging from 2 3/8 inches to 4 1/2 inches with locations in Koppel and Ambridge. IPSCO became a wholly owned subsidiary of SSAB, a Stockholm, Sweden-based steel company, in July 2007.

With the last of the tie-ins at the plant being addressed and the punch list being whittled down, it is expected that in short order, IPSCO can see this project put to bed.

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