euskalforging, a world leading manufacturer of seamless rolled rings, with turning, drilling and gear cutting capabilities and three manufacturing plants in the North of Spain, has successfully supplied in a record time all the seamless rolled rings involved in the manufacturing of the Blue 25M hammer from Fistuca. All the rings were DNV-GL inspected and approved.
The hammer will be able to drive the largest offshore wind monopiles in the industry.
With manufacturing roots dating back to the early 1970s, euskalforging first entered into the field of renewables during the 1980s. The company originally operated with a single manufacturing plant capable of producing seamless rolled rings of up to 1.5 metres and 400 kilograms, before gradually increasing its range to as high as 10.000 mm and 80 t by 2015. As of 2017 euskalforging operates from three different locations throughout Northern Spain, encompassing 47,000 m2 of manufacturing space. The company maintains five efficient ring-rolling machines across its manufacturing sites that enable euskalforging to offer one of the broadest ranges of rolled rings in the world, extending from 400 mm to 10.000 mm in outer diameter and from 30 kilos to 80 t.
This project has been possible thanks to the fifth ring rolling machine in the group located at the Sestao plant, a SMS Meer RAW 1.000/1.000 and one of the most powerful and largest machines operating at the moment in the world.
Ring Rolling Nº5 |
Under the terms of the contract, euskalforging has ring rolled, heat treated, machined and delivered five large rolled rings ranging from 6.500 mm of outer diameter up to 10.000 mm of outer diameter and input weights from 24t up to 80t.
10.000mm ring for Blue 25M hammer after ring rolling |
The company also integrates at this plant state of the art heat treatment, counting with 3 gas furnaces. Two of the furnaces have dimensions of 8.000 x 8.000 mm and a loading capacity of up to 50.000 kg and one of the furnaces has dimensions of 10.000 x 10.000 and a loading capacity of up to 80.000kg. Quenching tanks are also available to carry out the different types of heat treatments requested by the customers’ specifications.
10.000mm ring for Blue 25M hammer after heat treatment |
The machining process is also integrated within the same plant avoiding unnecessary and costly transportation of the rings. At the Sestao plant euskalforging has two CNC vertical lathes to turn rings up to 6.500 mm of outer diameter, three CNC vertical lathes to turn rings up to 8.000 mm of outer diameter, one CNC machining centre to turn and mill rings up to 10.000 mm of outer diameter and one CNC vertical lathe to turn rings up to 12.000 mm. Additionally the plant counts with a CNC vertical drilling machine to drill rings up to 9.000 mm of outer diameter and one gear cutting machine to produce gears up to 8.000 mm of outer diameter.
10.000mm ring for Blue 25M hammer during being machined |
All the inspections and controls for this project were also carried out at the Sestao plant as euskalforging counts with one level III UT inspector, eight level II UT inspectors, two level III MT inspectors and five level II MT inspectors plus all the necessary quality control equipment.
Another key element for the success of this project is the location of the company by the harbour, alongside the company’s ability to load directly into a barge from its facility. euskalforging has a unique location being the only ring rolling company in Europe capable of exploiting this possibility.
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