It is abundantly clear that only changes in the technology of the manufacturing process for all products can lead to decisive success with regard to the minimization of plant requirements and production costs. Examples in a combined merchant bar and wire rod mill for ball-bearing steels, a special-steel semiproduct mill for rounds, a high-grade steel-bar mill as well as plants for steel and copper tubes illustrate the possibilities that can be opened up in this direction. The constantly increasing market requirements such as closer tolerances, shorter deliveries and lower prices immediately represent restrictions for production plants, especially in the case of seamless tube manufacture. And, on account of the trend away from sales via stockholders and towards direct transactions between tube manufacturer and user, high-capacity seamless tube plants with expensive infrastructures (pilger and plug mills) are no longer flexible enough. The requirements for modern tube production plants are therefore maximum flexibility with regard to diameters, wall thicknesses, yields and batch sizes, low capital and operating costs and, finally, a high-quality end product.
