Successful throughout the world

Our boiler bottoms are used in heat exchangers, separators, columns, compressors, storage tanks and tank railcars. Our customers are found in the petrochemical industry, the oil and gas industry, the pulp and paper industry, the energy sector and in railcar construction. We are the world's only single-source supplier of shell plates, heads and cones made of carbon steel or in clad design.

Our materials

We use structural, fine-grained structural and pressure vessel steels in our carbon-steel heads and pressed parts.

We manufacture clad heads and pressed parts from conventional carbon steels. We offer stainless and heat-resistant steel grades as well as non-ferrous metals and alloys as coating materials to attain optimum corrosion properties.

Head shapes and dimensions

We produce heads welded in one or more parts according to customer specification. Multi-part cones are available with base thicknesses of up to 170 mm and diameters of up to 12,000 mm.

Optimized workability

Roll-bonded shell plates, heads and cones in plain-carbon steel from a single source means optimum processing for our customers. The base materials are ideally matched during production. The large range of steel grades cover a wide spectrum of application possibilities.

Boiler and apparatus construction

Pressure-vessel steels made by voestalpine Grobblech GmbH are found in the equipment and boilers in the chemical and petrochemical industries. Creep-resistant pressure-vessel steels withstand even the highest temperatures in these areas of application. They are especially suited to use in hot-application pressure vessels

High-strength alloys

We supply high-strength CrMo and CrMoV steels for the reduction of wall thicknesses in thick-walled pressure vessels. Our customers use the high-strength P460 NL2 mod grade for plates and heads in LPG tank trucks. Cryogenic 9% nickel steels with toughness down to minus 196 °C are used in the construction of storage tanks for liquefied natural (LNG) gas. We also supply heat-treatable fitting steels (WPHY) in as-rolled condition.

Greater thickness 

We provide heavy shell plates in selected steel grades, in thicknesses up to 200 mm and higher unit weights up to 24 tons based on ingot-cast pre-material. We also manufacture pressure vessel steels in sour-gas-resistant design for our customers.

HICfit pressure vessel plates for sour service

The voestalpine product family HICfit stands for pressure vessel plates for sour service and is characterized by their excellent resistance against hydrogen induced cracking (HIC).

HICfit heavy plates are made of slabs produced in our own steel plant. All measures to ensure highest cleanliness of steel are applied during production. This especially includes steel making via the LD process, originally invented and optimized by voestalpine, and the state of the art soft reduction process during continuous casting.

Sourgas-resistant steel grades

From a single source 

 We are a single-source supplier of shell plates, heads and cones in carbon steel and in roll-clad condition. The main benefits for our customers are as follows:

• Advantages in processing technologies, especially during welding, based on use of the same steel for shell plates and heads
• Technical consultation and coordination provided by quality and research specialists
• Simultaneous manufacturing and supply of shell plates and heads
• Lower procurement costs for our business partners

Steel grades

Dimensions

Heavy shell plates made of ingot-cast pre-material

We supply heavy boiler plates in selected steel grades, in thicknesses up to 200 mm and unit weights up to 24 tons based on ingot-cast pre-material.

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

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