We supply standard and high-strength, thermomechanically rolled, fine-grained steels of the highest quality with minimum yield strengths ranging from 355 355 MPa to 700 MPa.

As a special grade of voestalpine steel, alform® is primarily used in applications such as steel structures, bridges, pressure pipes, vehicles and cranes.

Our thermomechanically rolled fine-grained steels are characterized by a high degree of toughness and excellent weldability. The low degree of cold cracking and high degree of toughness in the welding seam result in the highest safety standards in welded structures.

Utilization of the higher yield strength of high-strength fine-grained steels (alform plate 420 M, 460M, 500 M and 550 M) as opposed to conventional structural steels results in lower cross-sections. This leads to cost savings in lower component weights and reduced expenditures for transports, assembly and foundations as well as savings in component manufacturing, especially during welding.

Steel grades:

Dimensions:

Higher stress

Machines and buildings are becoming bigger and bigger. When the size of a component is doubled in length, width and height, the weight increases by a factor of 8, while the load-bearing cross-sectional surface area only increases by a factor of 4. This increases the stress, or the weight in relation to the cross-sectional surface area, by a factor of two. High-strength steels can absorb these higher stresses, even when the component weight is reduced.

Concrete advantages

The lower weight of high-strength and ultra-high-strength heavy plates saves costs: Input material quantities, transport costs, assembly and foundation costs are reduced substantially. Costs are also saved during further processing. Thanks to favorable weldability, work can be completed more quickly and efficiently. Significantly reduced quantities of welding consumables are required, and weld seam testing is made easier.

Our program

High-strength heavy plates are available as fine-grained steels with a minimum yield strength of 620 and 700 MPa. Ultra-high-strength heavy plates are available as voestalpine special grades at 900, 960 and 1100 MPa.

• alform plate 620 M, thermomechanically rolled, high-strength fine-grained steels
• alform plate 700 M, thermomechanically rolled, high-strength fine-grained steels
• aldur 700, 900 and 960 Q, quenched and tempered, high-strength fine-grained steels
• alform plate 900 M x-treme, thermomechanically rolled, ultra-high-strength fine-grained steels
• alform plate 960 M x-treme, thermomechanically rolled, ultra-high-strength fine-grained steels
• alform plate 1100 M x-treme, thermomechanically rolled, ultra-high-strength fine-grained steels

A 645 Gr A / A 645 Gr B, cost reduction and increased safety in ethylene and LNG tank construction

Revision of API Standard 620, "Design and Construction of Large, Welded, Low-Pressure Storage Tanks" in 2018 has made it possible to use ASTM steel grades A 645 Gr A and Gr B for the construction of ethylene, LPG or LNG tanks.

State-of-the-art production facilities make it possible for us to manufacture both steel grades A 645 Gr A and Gr B as well as conventional 5% and 9% nickel steels.

Use of A 645 Gr A for the production of ethylene tanks provides roughly 15% higher strength, increased safety and the possibility of reduced wall thickness for substantial cost savings in tank construction.

ASTM A 645 Gr B achieves material properties equivalent to those of traditional 9% nickel steels in LNG storage but meets these requirements with roughly 30% lower nickel content. A further result is substantially reduced costs in the production of onshore and offshore LNG tanks and in the construction of LNG fuel tanks. 

LNG

Natural gas is liquefied at the extremely low temperature of -164 °C, shrinking its volume by a factor of 600. This makes its storage and transport possible and economically efficient. At these very low temperatures, the utilization of special 9% nickel steels is necessary in order to guarantee sufficient ductility and resistance to brittle cracking. We supply extra wide plates to this market segment, even in thicknesses up to 5 mm.

LPG

The LPG process is used to produce propane and process gases from natural gas. These gases are liquefied at room temperature at low pressure and are stored in special tanks made of 5% nickel steels. We supply shell plates, heads and cones from a single source.

Highest quality for the highest degree of security

The basis of our high-quality nickel plates are high-purity slabs from our own steelmaking plant. The very low carbon content guarantees perfect weldability. Further advantages are found in the product's excellent impact strength and the fracturing properties (CTOD). The entire plate surface undergoes ultrasonic testing. The residual magnetism is below 50 Gauss.

Preprocessing to meet specific customer requirements

• Sand-blasted or sand-blasted and primed
• Preparation of welded edges: Minimal hardening of the burned edge is made possible by the low carbon content.
• Plate bending

Steel grades

Dimensions*

*) Additional dimensions upon request.

Accreditations

Our product quality is certified by all of the leading certification institutions. We also meet the highest requirements of KOGAS, the state-operated Korean gas company.

Certifications for 5% nickel steels

• Lloyd's Register of Shipping (LRS), Great Britain
• Technischer Überwachungsverein (TÜV), Germany
• Germanischer Lloyd (GL), Germany
• Registro Italiano Navale (RINA), Italy
• Lloyd's Register of Shipping (LRS), Great Britain
• Bureau Veritas (BV), France

Certifications for 9 % nickel steels

• Lloyd's Register of Shipping (LRS), Great Britain
• Technischer Überwachungsverein (TÜV), Germany

Applications under the harshest conditions

We deliver high-quality offshore structural steels and thermomechanically rolled shipbuilding plates for drilling platforms, oil platforms and jack-up rigs. These steels are also used in foundations for offshore wind parks and floating production storage and offloading vessels (FPSOs). In addition, we are in a position to produce chords for the feet of jack-up rigs. We supply pre-qualified materials with plate thicknesses of up to 80 mm and CTOD values down to -40 °C for applications in arctic regions (arctic steel). Our thermomechanically rolled offshore plates are characterized by a high degree of toughness and excellent weldability. The low degree of cold cracking and high degree of toughness in the welding seam make it possible for us to guarantee the highest safety standards in welded structures.

Steel grades

Dimensions

 Prequalified 

We supply offshore plates pre-qualified pursuant to EN10225 in steel grades up to S460G2+M and in plate thicknesses up to 101.6 mm as well as pre-qualified pursuant to API RP2Z in steel grades up to API 2W-60 and in plate thicknesses up to 101.6 mm. For arctic applications, we supply offshore plates in steel grades up to API 2W-60 with guaranteed CTOD values down to -40°C, pre-qualified pursuant to API RP2Z.

Our roll-bonded plates and heads are used in chemical apparatus engineering and refineries, in the oil and gas industry, in oil sand processing (coke drums) and in the food industry. Clad plates are used in seawater desalination and flue gas desulfurization systems.

Materials

A roll-clad sheet or plate consists of a base and a coating layer material.

The base materials for our clad plates come 100% from our own steel production in Linz. Cladding materials are purchased in the form of slabs and plates from renowned manufacturers.

The base materials used are primarily structural steels, boiler and pressure vessel steels and fine-grained structural steels that are characterized by good weldability and workability.

As cladding materials, we supply ferritic and austenitic stainless steels, nickel and nickel-based alloys, copper and copper-nickel alloys that are characterized by their respective corrosion properties.

Further details can be found in the brochure linked below.

The surfaces of the base materials are usually supplied in as-rolled condition or are sandblasted.

The surface of the cladding material is usually ground. We supply ground with grain 80 as a standard. Further grindings can be supplied upon request.

Here you will find more detailed information about delivery conditions and certifications for clad plates.

Available dimensions

Sourgas resistant plates for tubes

Sourgas occurs in oil and gas production and is considered highly corrosive. Only the best materials can withstand this aggressive medium. As one of the leading suppliers of sourgas-resistant linepipe plates worldwide, we supply roll-bonded linepipe plates with corrosion-resistant cladding for this specific application.

Protective cladding

The base material is decisive in linepipe production. Our roll-clad plates exhibit high strength, good toughness and best corrosion protection as a result of the cladding material. The combination of the X65 product with nickel-based alloy 625 achieves these optimized properties in the material. Our partners process the material into metallurgically bonded linepipe.

Quality defies the elements

The metallurgical bond of the clad linepipe withstands the highest mechanical stress and dynamic loads. These pipes are ideally suited for use in deep-sea pipelines under corrosive conditions.

Reeling and riser pipes 

• Roll clad plates for pipelines 
• High corrosion resistance, even for the most demanding sourgas requirements 
• Reeling of pipelines more efficient and cheaper than welding on board 
• Roll-bonded plates for metallurgically bonded linepipe to vertical pipelines (risers) 
• Excellent metallurgical properties of roll-bonded plates for highest compressive strength

Specializing in extreme conditions

Lowest arctic temperatures, highest pressure in the deep sea, acidic media: Even the most adverse conditions cannot harm our linepipe plates. Our plates can be found at depths of up to 3000 meters below sea level as sourgas-resistant linepipe plates or as land pipelines with a diameter of up to 48" (1220 mm). The highest sourgas requirements are met by our roll-bonded linepipe plates with corrosion-resistant cladding. As specialists in modern thermomechanical rolling processes with accelerated cooling, we are one of the world market leaders in linepipe plates. More than 2 million tons of sourgas-resistant linepipe plates and extremely tough linepipe plates for thick-walled deep-sea pipelines are ample proof of our product success.

Eddy current testing system successfully developed and approved

The oil and gas industry identified local hard zones (LHZ) as the root cause for Sulphide-Stress-Cracking (SSC) failures of carbon steel in severe sour service application representing zone 3 and beyond of the NACE diagram.

The characteristics of the local hard zones are that they reach hardness levels well above the typical base material hardness with a very low thickness (only several 0,1mm). The frequency of occurrence of such local hard zones is very low and random. 

Demonstrating the absence of these local hard zones becomes one of the focal points of the industry. Based on the long lasting in-house experience for eddy current at voestalpine a highly automated testing system was developed and accredited by different oil and gas majors.

The magnetic field of the eddy current of the material represents material properties (magnetic hard vs. magnetic soft). A change of the material property caused by e.g. a local hard zone is detectable and can be identified.

At voestalpine the motorized equipment follows the plate surface by meander with an automated tracking. The coverage of the plate surface is 100% with an overlap from one track to the next. Due to the automated tracking an automated examination report with exact and automated localization of indications is created and recorded.

The Probability of detection (POD) based on different mathematical models and therefore the sensitivity of the system was demonstrated to different oil and gas majors. Additionally the best repeatability of detecting local hard zones were highlighted.

Voestalpine has a track record of more than 2,4 Mio tons of delivered plates for sour service application. For more than 340.000 tons of plates for commercially use for sour service (representing almost 15% of the delivered quantity) this highly automated testing system has been utilized.

Steel grades

Dimensions

Our linepipe plates are thermo-mechanically rolled and accelerated-cooled. All grades are available upon request in sourgas-resistant design at pH3 or pH5 pursuant to NACE TM 0284 Solution A and B. All steel grades are available with notched bar impact testing and Battelle testing (BDWTT) at temperatures below 0 °C. HIC tests for sourgas applications upon request.

Parts used in abrasive environments wear out quickly. In order to lengthen the service life of such components, we have developed two special steel grades whose service life is significantly longer than conventional steels. Our online-hardened durostat® carbon steels are especially wear-resistant and demonstrate the best processing properties. Our highly wear-resistant altrix® steels include roll-clad multi-layer plates for an even longer service life.