A Steel Producer's Know-how Lies in the Tubes

With expertise in both steel and mechanical engineering, Ruukki has a head start in the development of various steel applications. Ruukki's extensive offering of tubular products includes tubes engineered for different applications. These tubes are made from steel grades developed specifically for a particular application by Ruukki's own product development.

"The steel raw material comes from our own production. We have tailored material for each dimension to optimise the relationship between the reach and strength required for the tube concerned," explains Juha Ikkala, Product Manager for hollow sections at Ruukki Metals.

Ruukki's direct link between tube production and the steel works ensures tubes can be made from a newly developed steel grade at short notice. It also enables an immediate study of tube welding properties and other behavior.


"This is why our product development is considerably faster than that of our competitors. A preliminary appraisal of the suitability of a future steel strip for tube production is already available," Ikkala says.

Unique products for the transportation equipment industry

Ruukki's offering of tubes and profiles has been developed to meet customer needs and includes all steel grades from formable to ultra high-strength steels. Since it contains minimum carbon, Ruukki's advanced modern steel raw material improves steel weldability and surface quality.

Highly advanced steel products include components made of Optim steels, which have excellent strength, as well as Raex steels, which have excellent wear-resistance.

Typical, suitable applications for Optim steels are in the mechanical engineering industry. Optim enables light, thin steel structures and even structures that would be impossible using traditional soft steels.

Hard, wear-resistant direct-quenched Raex steel is a unique product from which tubular products are also made.

"Raex can be used, for example, in vehicles transporting wear-resistant material, such as concrete pumping and transfer systems. No other supplier can offer a direct-quenched steel strip comparable to Raex. This means similar wear-resistant tubes are not simply available elsewhere," Ikkala proudly explains.

Ruukki's precision tube Form combines high strength with good formability. Typical applications for the Form product family can be found in the automotive industry. Form is ideal for different safety parts, such as impact protection or bumpers, which absorb collision energy within a short distance very fast. Steel strengthens the whole time when absorbing impact energy and so protects the persons inside the vehicle. Another typical application area is products, such as tools, where both lightness and strength are required.

With expertise gained in Nordic climatic conditions, Ruukki also has unique cold-resistant tubes, the impact strength of which can be guaranteed down to -60C. No Central European or Asian competitors can provide similar tubes.

Ruukki has over 10 production lines, which enable customised tubular product solutions for every need.

Ruukki's latest laser cutting technology enables the laser cutting of heavier tubes and profiles up to 508 mm in diameter. Tube ends can be formed accurately into the required shape and angle, which makes tube fittings easy to form.

"Our laser for heavier grades is probably the biggest pipe laser in Finland and enables us to make very complex shapes in heavy tubes. We also have four smaller pipe lasers. We can provide high-strength tube, which has been shaped to customer needs," says Kari Salin, application manager at Ruukki Metals.

Lighter, more durable peat machines

The peat machines of Vapo, the world's leading peat machinery manufacturer, are an example of a mechanical engineering application where Optim and Raex steel grades have been used in tandem with Ruukki's advanced laser cutting machinery.

Vapo's miller mills a 20-40 mm thick layer of peat from the peatland surface for drying for use as fuel. Ruukki's wear-resistant steel Raex 500 is used for the milling blades.

The milled peat is collected into wagons, which feature Optim 700 MC tubes in the frame structure. Thanks to high-strength Optim tubes, the wall thickness of the wagons could be reduced from five to three millimetres.

The lightness and strength of Optim tubes together with the wear-resistance of Raex make an unbeatable combination. Machines are both lighter and more durable. The lightness of the structure benefits the end-user in the form of higher pay loads and lower fuel consumption.