Home Quality management

The TCD checks compliance of production technology as well as the production quality during all the production phases stipulated by technological procedures.

Since 2003 an independent Quality Inspection Service has been working at the Mill; this Service presents the interests of the main shareholder — Company “UVIS”. The Company holds continuous inspectorial checks of engineering procedures of tube production, quality control and technical acceptance of integrated products in accordance with normative-technical and technological documentation of GOSTs, TU and other International Standards. Upon identification of the defected goods or usage of low-quality material, the inspectors draw up the Reports of Checks and send them to the Management of Company “UVIS”.

In accordance with requirements of Technical Documentation of GOSTs, Engineering Specifications, International Standards-Specifications all the production of Nikopol Stainless Tube Mill undergoes the following kinds of checks:

Visual inspection of external and internal tube surfaces

Visual inspection of external and internal surfaces is stipulated by the requirements of applicable Standard Technical Specifications and is obligatory for all kinds of tubes.

Inner surface control

Instrument check of inner tube surface is carried out by means of endoscope along the full length of tube with x4 magnification of section of examined surface. The tubes small with inner diameter not permitting endoscope usage are checked at short samples taken from these tubes and cut along the generatrix.

Wall thickness control

Check of tube wall thickness is done оn both ends of tube by means of tube micrometer MT-0-25. If specific Technical requirements are stipulated by the Customer, such control can be carried out in a continuous way by automatic ultrasonic devices.

Outside diameter control

External tube diameter is checked in several cross sections of tube with micrometer MK depending on tube diameter or by fixed calibrated gauge not less than in two opposite cross sections. The automatic control of external tube diameter is carried out by ultrasonic equipment simultaneously with the check of wall thickness and tube metal homogeneity.

Inside diameter control

Check of inside diameter is done at both ends of tube manually by special gauge, prepared acc. to the Specification requirements. Automatic control by ultrasonic equipment is used only for the tubes with severe applications.

Tube straightness control

Straightness of tubes is insured by production process used at Nikopol Stainless Tube Mill. In accordance with Standards or Customer requirements the measurements are carried out manually by using specific gauges and inclined plane at which tubes are rolled down.

Tube length control

The length of tube is checked by means of tape-measure, taking into account the tolerances stipulated by the Specification, when tubes are cut to fixed lengths — the measuring is carried out using the length specimen.

Steel quality control

Correspondence of chemical composition to steel qualities is guaranteed by the manufacturer of the billets.
Chemical composition of round billets arriving to the mill is checked for conformity with steel quality using two control methods: qualitative method of styloscoping and quantitative chemical analysis.

Non-destructive testing

Non-destructive test of tubes is carried out by ultrasonic and Eddy Current test methods. Presently, at Nikopol Stainless Tube Mill there are 18 such units operating altogether — 4 Eddy Current test (ECT) units and 14 ultrasonic test (UT) units. Five units are most-up-date and meet all the requirements of the World Standards. These are: defectoscope ROTA 65E produced by Company NUKEM (Nutronic), three defectoscopes produced by Company “Foerster” and software operated equipment engineered for Eddy Current check of tubes “ABK”; produced by Company “C-Comp”.

All the information on ultrasonic and Eddy Current check of tubes of any order is kept in the data base and may be presented to an Auditor or to a Customer upon request.

All the services of check, testing, metrology, certification and standardization of Nikopol Stainless Tube Mill as well as instrumentation, important equipment and machines, maintenance staff usually undergo scheduled inspections and certifications in accordance with the requirements of technical Specifications. The internal audits are carried out in accordance with time schedules being documented in corresponding Acts. All Nikopol Stainless Tube Mill stuff has nad proper training in the field of general quality management.

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