Tenova Italimpianti Deutschland has received a contract from Brazil’s Vallourec & Sumitomo Tubos do Brasil for the engineering, fabrication and commissioning relevant to four reheating furnaces to be installed in the company’s new pipe mill. The order covers one 240-tons-per-hour (tph) walking-beam furnace for reheating the pipe in the mill area and three 100-tph walking-beam furnaces for hardening and tempering the pipes in the annealing section. All the furnaces are equipped with low-NOx, high-speed burners designed to run with natural gas.

The furnaces are provided with inside charging and discharging roller tables to transport the pipes in and out of the furnace. They are also equipped with an automation system for controlling the heating as well as the movement of the charge inside the furnaces. The complete equipment commissioning is scheduled by early 2010.