Raurkela: The enterprising endeavours of the Quality Circle team of the SAIL's pipe plant of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) has considerably improved the production and productivity of the unit by eliminating the generation of untrimmed pipes due to internal trimming. The QC team of RSP comprising senior operators SK Mishra, K Maharana, SK Das, SK Panda and M Pradhan zeroed in on the root cause of the problem. It was found that there was insufficient space between the pipe and the impeder and as a result material scale was getting deposited over the cutting tool leading to break downs.
Internal trimming is the most important as well as the most difficult process in pipe making. The pipe making process for final movement remains incomplete without trimming the internal bead of the pipe. There were frequent breakdowns in the internal trimmers particularly in case of 8-inch diameter pipes leading to a loss of lakhs of rupees. This used to also adversely affect the productivity, quality, equipment health and acceptability of the ERW Pipes.
In order to overcome the problem the team used long length coolant pipe instead of short length pipe and the machining of the length of the impeder was done in-house. This innovative modification stopped the break downs and led to substantial savings for the company. In the recent chapter lever CCQC convention, the QC team of RSP was awarded the gold medal for their enterprising effort.
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