Tenaris mill in Hickman undergoes major digital integration to boost safety, efficiency

Houston, TX. December 19, 2024. The integration of automation and digital tools were central to Tenaris’s recently completed annual extraordinary maintenance project at its welded pipe mill in Hickman, Arkansas, an investment of $8 million USD, boosting safety and mill efficiency.

Tenaris pauses production at its mills on an annual basis to assess equipment, perform necessary preventive maintenance and carry out investments.

“This investment served as a turning point for our plant in Hickman,” said Dustin Broglin, maintenance director at Tenaris’s welded mill in Hickman. “We are enhancing our operational efficiency through the integration of more automation and advanced tools, equipment, and software, for greater control of our manufacturing processes, with real-time information to guide our performance. These investments add value to our employees, in their day-to-day, and for our customers in the quality pipe we produce.”

A range of projects were carried out at the mill, including the installation of a new cabin in the large outside diameter mill for employees, centralizing all tools, monitors and process control equipment in an ergonomic workspace for operators. Major technological and mechanical upgrades for improved efficiency were performed on critical pieces of equipment, such as the slitter, which cuts the large coils of steel into the required width and prepares the edges for the weld, and the fly cut off saw, which cuts the welded pipe into the customers’ required length. A new robot was also integrated at the mill, enhancing safety by reducing operator movement of heavy pipe couplings.

Broglin adds that the team also laid the groundwork for future process control improvements having performed early design work. Nearly 100 contractors, the majority from nine local suppliers, joined more than 200 Tenaris employees to carry out the investment project, recording just under 20,000 hours worked during the four-week planned shutdown and achieving zero safety incidents.

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Tenaris is a leading global manufacturer and supplier of steel pipe products and related services for the world’s energy industry and other industrial applications. Our customers include most of the world’s leading oil and gas companies and our revenues amounted to US $14.9 billion in 2023. Employing around 29,000 people worldwide, we operate an integrated network of steel pipe manufacturing, research, finishing and service facilities with industrial operations in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa and a direct presence in most major oil and gas markets.