GROUP Five Pipe Saudi is extending its capacity for large pipe production with the installation of a complete pipe plant from Schuler and Atis of Germany.

The new plant will raise the Saudi-based company’s annual output by 400,000 tonnes. At the heart of this new facility is an offline spiral pipe line for manufacturing pipes with diameters of 508 to 2,235 mm and lengths of 12 to 24.4 m. In addition, the pipe plant boasts four welding stands and various testing stations. 

With a production speed of 10 m per minute, the new plant easily outperforms the conventional spiral pipe plants previously used by Group Five Pipe Saudi.

“We are not only building and supplying the complete plant with all peripheral equipment, but will also fully install it and launch production over the course of the coming year,” explains Jochen Früh, managing director at Schuler.

Large pipes are made from high-grade steel (up to X100) in thickness of up to 25.4 mm, which is wound onto coils. The spiral pipe line forms this material into the desired shape and diameter and tack welds the seams. At one of the four welding stands, the pipe is then welded into its final shape at speeds of up to 2.50 m per minute using a submerged arc-welding process. In accordance with the API (American Petroleum Institute) standard, pipes are subsequently checked using ultrasonic devices, x-rays and a hydrotester. The entire pipe plant has a length of 450 m.

Group Five Pipe Saudi was founded in 2001 and is based in Dammam. The TÜV-certified company belongs to the AHQ & Sons Group of Companies and has four sites where large pipes are produced according to the highest quality standard of the API. Its customers include companies in the gas and oil industry, such as Halliburton, Saipem and Saudi Aramco, as well as the Saline Water Conversion Corporation, which produces potable water for Saudi Arabia, and the German pump manufacturer KSB.

Group Five Pipe Saudi’s pipes serve the oil and gas sector, the fresh and saline water transportation and related transmissions sector and the construction and building sector.