Russian steel pipe and railway wheel producer Vyksa Steel Works, a part of Russia-based OMK Group, has successfully completed field tests of large diameter (LD) pipes made from wide flat products at its heavy plate mill 5000, which purchases continuously cast slabs from Russian steelmaker NLMK.
These tests confirmed that 1,420 mm diameter pipes with a wall thickness of 27.7 mm made by Vyksa Steel Works from K65 steel are fully compliant with requirements of Russian gas company Gazprom. Thus, they can be used for construction of gas pipelines with a working pressure of 11.8 MPa, such as the Bovanenkovo-Ukhta main gas pipeline. In December 2012, Vyksa Steel Works successfully completed field tests of 1,420 mm diameter pipes with a wall thickness of 23 mm made from K65 steel for compliance with Gazprom's requirements.