Outokumpu possesses the industry-exclusive capability to produce 10mm-thick coil from duplex grades LDX 2101® and 2304, opening a wealth of new opportunities for stainless steel users.
Outokumpu claims many world records in duplex stainless steel. Some of these are in storage tanks: the Port of Barcelona in Spain is home to the world’s largest duplex tank farm built out of Outokumpu’s proprietary lean duplex grade LDX 2101®, and the Port of Fangcheng in southwestern China will see the fabrication of a breakthrough farm from 2009 onwards out of Outokumpu’s LDX 2101® and 2304; the two projects use both coil and plate.
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Besides reaping major gains from the inherent properties of duplex, such projects will be increasingly competitive in the future thanks to Outokumpu’s new duplex coil capability: as the only duplex producer in the world, Outokumpu can now produce plate in the coil process up to 10mm thickness from LDX 2101® and 2304, both 1500mm and 2000mm wide.
The benefits of the new coil capability are many. The higher production efficiency of the coil process compared to the quarto plate process makes lead times significantly shorter. The coil process features better thickness tolerances and produces a higher-quality surface finish.
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“These properties of the coil process offer big economic advantages to our customers,” says Chang-Ching Sun from Outokumpu’s Chinese sales team, listing some of the advantages: “Better thickness tolerances mean less material while meeting thickness requirements, and the result is lower material costs. A good surface quality always means less extra work and translates into a good image for our customer’s product.”
Erik Johansson from Outokumpu’s Spanish sales team points out the combined benefits of duplex and the new capability. “Because of the heavy thickness reduction potential that duplex offers, 10mm duplex coil could replace up to 16mm quarto plate in standard austenitic grades.” He foresees great potential in a wide variety of industrial applications.
Tubemakers will have the opportunity to produce duplex tube of 10mm wall thickness either from sheets or directly from coil as their processes allow. The capability is remarkable for the tube project business in particular, where heavy-wall tubes are common.
Outokumpu is the world leader in duplex stainless steel and a pioneer in many uses of duplex. “Our advantages with duplex can be even better utilized thanks to the new 10mm capability,” says Dr. Sun.
The new duplex product is available globally. Please contact your local Outokumpu sales representative.
For more information, contact:
Per Stinessen
Commercial Manager
Outokumpu Stainless, Avesta, Sweden
Tel. +46 (0) 226 810 00
Email: per.stinessen(at)outokumpu.com