LIBERTY Ostrava has completed the installation of its new tubular piping line, which will significantly improve the automation, the precision and the quality completion process of Ostrava’s line pipes, casing and tubing for oil and gas industry. The line has seen the investment of more than 15 million crowns to update the plant’s previous equipment, which was almost 25 years old.

The decision to modernise the line was taken in 2019 and the new Magnemag line was supplied to Ostrava by the Czech company Jetty Vision last December. The installation was completed at the end of January and the operational trial, during which the line has been adjusted and fine-tuned, comes to an end shortly.  The line’s capacity will be around 4,500 tonnes of pipes per month using a three-shift operation.  Last year 68% of the Ostrava’s pipe products for oil and gas industry were exported.

The new line weighs each pipe, measures its length, marks it and stamps information data onto it according to the requirements of the relevant standard or the customer. It also allows for the painting of coupling and application of longitudinal and circumferential identification strips to be added automatically, as opposed to manually. It can also operate with pipes from a diameter of 89 mm, an improvement on the old one which could only process pipes from 133 mm.

Michael Hermann, the head of maintenance of the Tubular Plant, said: “The new line has reduced manual work and improved the precision and the quality of the completion processes. The modernization has increased the capacity of all the marking equipment. For example, the capacity of stamping has risen from the original 50 to 200 characters so at a time we are able to stamp more data onto the pipe conforming to customers´ requirements.”

Libor Černý, Tubular Plant Director, added: “The new line is operated by three employees on each shift and their experience has allowed us to put the new equipment into full operation quickly. The modern technology has helped us to automate the entire production process as well as significantly increase the quality of stamping, colour spraying and ink marking. However, the main benefit, is the higher degree of reliability of the line and the use of a compatible up-to-date control system, which enables us to meet the demands of the domestic as well as foreign customers.”

Further information:

LIBERTY Ostrava  is an integrated steel company with an annual production capacity of 3.6 million tons of steel, which is used mainly in the construction, engineering and oil and gas industries. It is a domestic leader in the production of road barriers and tubes. In addition to the Czech market, it supplies its products to more than 40 countries around the world. Together with its subsidiaries, it has 6,000 employees. Thanks to above-standard greening, it manufactures its products with as little environmental footprint as possible. The steel mill belongs to the LIBERTY Steel Group.

LIBERTY Steel Group  is part of the global GFG Alliance owned by Sanjeev Gupta and his family. The GFG Alliance has three independent industrial brands: LIBERTY Steel  Group,  ALVANCE Aluminum Group and  SIMEC Energy Group which share the same values and strive for a long-term sustainable future for industry and society. The GFG Alliance operates in 30 countries, with a total of 35,000 employees and a turnover of over $ 20 billion.

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