New laser welding machine secures competitive position

Schoeller, one of the leading manufacturers of longitudinally welded and drawn stainless steel tubes on the European market, has completed the installation of one of the largest and most modern laser welding systems in the industry after around two years of planning and preparation. The system is the largest single investment in the company’s history and underlines the company’s commitment as an innovation leader and to strengthening its competitive position.

The laser welding process is the key technology of the future in the steel and stainless steel processing industry. As part of the ongoing site development, the company has decided to bundle the existing laser technology and develop it into a competence center. The focus here was on the standardization and automation of the machinery and the acquisition of a large pipe laser welding system (“Laser XL+”). This new system with impressive dimensions of 96 x 11.5 meters is the future heart of the laser competence center in Hellenthal. The XL+ laser welding machine specializes in the production of longitudinally welded stainless steel tubes with dimensions ranging from 65 mm to 127 mm and a wall thickness of 0.7 mm to 3.5 mm and is unique in its configuration in the industry. Schoeller’s technical project management team began preparations for the installation and commissioning of the system around two years ago. Since then, the project management has created all the organizational and technical prerequisites for an orderly handover to production. This required coordination and agreement with almost all areas and teams in the company. The internal interfaces between the divisions, combined with the large number of external service providers and the overlaps with other projects, significantly increased the complexity of the project. At times, seven different companies with around 30 people were working on one construction site, which had to be coordinated simultaneously. Commissioning and parameterization for setting up the machine will take place in the remaining weeks of the year until the start of series production. The system has a high degree of automation and thus reduces the manual work previously required, including a fully automated coil changing process (automatic coil loading and welding of the strip ends), new tube cleaning technology, fully automated quality control, further improved tube end processing and automated packaging of the tubes produced. The system can process austenitic, ferritic and duplex steels. With the Laser XL+, Schoeller is further expanding its expertise and quality lead in the areas of strip edge processing and seam quality and is opening up new market potential in the area of larger tube dimensions, both in existing customer business and in sectors with high growth potential, such as heating technology, heat exchangers, hydrogen applications and solar technology. There is additional potential in the chemical, pharmaceutical, food and automotive customer segments.

“With our investment in laser technology, we not only want to expand our technological leadership and our production capacities in the European market for welded and drawn stainless steel tubes. The system is also a clear commitment to the Hellenthal site and our production in the Eifel region. Above all, the Laser XL+ offers employees a future-oriented and technologically sophisticated working environment with the opportunity to develop new areas of expertise. This makes us even more attractive as an employer for qualified specialists,” says Alexander Mertens, Managing Director of Schoeller, explaining the other motives behind the project. A key component of Schoeller’s range of services is the solution-oriented consulting that the company regularly contributes to customer-centered development projects (co-creation). The company will therefore make the potential of the new system available to its customers in a targeted manner. They can use the machine to test projects with high demands on materiality and production technology and develop them together with Schoeller through to series production. Schoeller will contribute its entire know-how to the implementation in order to achieve the best solution and make a significant contribution to the customer’s success. Web: www.schoellerwerk.de