Alkhorayef Industires Co is the industrial arm of the Alkhorayef Group, which has been in business since 1957. Alkhorayef Industries, along with the other member companies, have been significant contributors to the unparalleled growth and modernisation of the kingdom's industrial and agricultural sectors.
Alkhorayef Industries is a highly diversified, vertically integrated metalworking business, producing a wide range of industrial products in various ISO 9000-certified manufacturing facilities:
The Mechanised Irrigation Systems Factory is amongst the three largest facilities of this kind in the world, producing centre-pivot and linear irrigation systems, which are sold internationally under the name Western.
The company's Polyethylene Lining Systems Factory utilises a unique patented process that produces irrigation pipes with an integral HDPE lining. This is sold under the brand name Permapipe. It offers the best available solution to corrosion problems.
Alkhorayef's Vertical and Horizontal Centrifugal Pump Factory manufactures complete lines of vertical turbine, submersible and horizontal centrifugal pumps which are also sold under the Western name, for use in municipal, industrial, commercial and agricultural applications. This factory also produces right-angle gear drives, under the internationally known name Randolph, which range in size from 20 to 1500hp.
The company's Custom Engineered Products Division combines the engineering skills and manufacturing capabilities of the various Alkhorayef factories listed here to design, reverse engineer (where necessary) and produce custom-made metal parts for industry, the petroleum businesses and other sectors.
The Alkhorayef ERW Steel Pipe Factory, in production since 1990, is the leading manufacturer in the Kingdom of electric resistance welded (ERW) steel pipe in sizes 2 -8 5/8" diameter, and in thicknesses from 2-8.2mm, with pipe lengths ranging from 13.1-44.2 ft. The factory has an annual capacity of 42,000 MT. This factory uses the latest in automated pipe manufacturing technology to provide its customers with the best quality at the lowest price possible. The pipe is produced in an ISO 9000-certified factory, to the most popular world standards for ERW steel pipe, including:
API 5L Gr. A & B
ASTM A53 Gr. A & B.
BS 1378
This factory is equipped with a pipe mill manufactured by Bauer, a leading European manufacturer of pipe mills, utilising the latest technologies available, such as HF induction welding and heat treatment of welds. The pipe factory is equipped with a slitting line, manufactured by Braner of the US. This is capable of slitting hot-rolled coil (HRC) with widths up to 1550mm and thicknesses up to 10mm into up to 17 strips. The line has an annual slitting capacity of 90,000 MT.
This is more than required for the pipe factory, and a contract slitting service is available to other manufacturers. The manufacture by Alkhorayef of electric resistance welded (ERW) steel pipe commences with the slitting of a large master coil of hot rolled steel produced by a steel rolling mill. This is so as to: (a) remove rolling imperfections from the master coil edges and to provide a precise master coil width; and to cut the master coil into several narrower pipe coils with precise widths designed to produce a specific pipe diameter when rolled and formed into pipe, and with good coil edges to facilitate quality welding of the pipe. The pipe coils are fed into a pipe mill and through a set of form rolls designed to produce the desired circular shape and size.
The rolled steel form then feeds through an HF induction welding station for the actual ERW welding process. This begins with the converging edges of the rolled steel pipe being heated to a glowing red plastic state. The metal is then fed through a forging process which uses squeeze rolls. The welded pipe is then fed through a station where the underside of the weld bead is removed by means of a scarfing tool, maintaining a uniform pipe-wall thickness and an unobstructed flow path. To ensure a high quality weld is maintained, and that the resulting pipes meet all applicable standards, the welded pipe is fed through an annealing station in the pipe mill where the welded zone is slowly heated to 900 deg C using low frequency induction heat following welding in order to restore grain size, reduce internal stresses and counteract unwanted inclusions.
To take advantage of the new opportunities developing in the Saudi oil and gas sectors, Alkhorayef Industries is focusing on taking advantage of its unique marketing advantage in the Kingdom of being the only local manufacturer for ERW carbon steel API 5L in sizes 4" and 5". Alkhorayef Industries Co has not only been successful with its product in the Kingdom and the Middle East region, but also in penetrating new global markets including the US, Europe, Australasia, China and North Africa. Product applications include special pipes for: oil and gas, irrigation, columns and casing, fire-fighting networks, water cooling systems and various structural applications. The company is ISO 9001:2000 certified. The company's QA system not only addresses quality matters, but also safety and environmental issues with a particular emphasis on customer satisfaction. The pipe factory has testing facilities for maintaining the highest quality of its products. These include:
Physical inspection prior to slitting;
Tensile testing (test characteristics regarding yield, tensile strengths and elongation are all assessed);
WIP (work-in-progress) testing. This includes an eddy current test, for detection of defects at weld seams with reference to a predetermined control limit, and a flattening test to check the integrity of the weld, where the sample is flattened cold between parallel plates up to 2/3 OD. The weld is placed at 0 and 90 deg from the direction of the applied force, or as the standard specifies;
Hydrostatic testing: at specified duration and pressure according to required standards to reveal any undetected seam weld defects;
Finished-goods testing, under which finished products are visually inspected for external defects prior to shipment (mainly for material handling defects, dents and other damage).
© Technical Review Middle East 2005
