The works
10,000 m² in Hebei province, building one thing: heavy welded steel vessels for molten metal service.
Process line
Plate verification → CNC cutting and bevelling → warm forming (850–900 °C) → fit-up → electroslag welding → stress relief → NDT → shot blasting → painting → marking → despatch
| Stage | Equipment |
|---|---|
| Cutting | CNC plate cutting and bevelling |
| Forming | Hydraulic press, warm forming at 850 – 900 °C |
| Welding | Consumable-nozzle electroslag welding (ESW), submerged arc, manual metal arc |
| Heat treatment | Stress-relief furnace, 600 – 650 °C |
| NDT | Ultrasonic testing of plate and welds |
| Surface | Shot blast and paint, in house |
| Lifting | 32 t overhead gantry over the main bay |
A kettle can weigh more than the crane that built it. The gantry handles shells through fabrication; the heaviest finished units are moved, turned and loaded with lifting arrangements planned for that specific kettle.
This matters at your end too. Before you order, we will tell you what lift capacity and what access your site needs to receive the kettle — a unit that arrives at a plant which cannot unload it is a very expensive problem, and an avoidable one.
Why blast and paint being in house matters
It is the least glamorous line in the table and it decides more than it looks. A kettle that leaves the works to be blasted somewhere else has spent time uncoated, usually outdoors, and arrives at the coating stage with exactly the surface condition you do not want under paint.
In house, the gap between the last weld and the first coat is measured in hours. Surface preparation grade and coating system are specified on your order — see the product pages.
Every photograph on this site is of the actual works. We do not use renderings, and we do not use stock images of somebody else’s factory. Where we do not have a photograph yet, this site says so rather than filling the gap.
What happens at each stage
The equipment list above is only half the story. What each stage is for — and what it costs if it is skipped — is set out on the steel specification, warm forming, electroslag welding and quality control.
Come and see it
Factory visits are normal in this business and we welcome them. Tell us when you are in the region.