Quality Control Laboratory
The laboratory department, which is a subsidiary of the quality control department, besides having a bright
background in terms of the tests of the products of the pipe production lines of Ahvaz Pipe Mills Co., is capable
of fulfilling the requirements of other plants and providing services to them in terms of testing and approving
their products.
This department has established a management system, which indicates strict conformity of all its activities to
the ISO/IEC 17025 standard and has based its ability on realizing the requirements of the principles of this
system.
This laboratory, equipped with modern laboratory equipment, professional experts, numerous software and
hardware resources and by creating appropriate environment conditions and applying valid criteria in executive
methods and the instructions, while having ensured the implementation of the requirements of the standards in
the range of its duties and activities, has responded the requirements of customers and demanders of products.
The articles of association of the laboratory provides a clear picture of the scope of realization of the
requirements and the limits of the activities while being considered among the most reliable documents in the
structure of the laboratory documents and introducing the scope of activities and describing the management
system.
The laboratory of the quality control department is responsible for carrying out the necessary tests according to
the international standards API-5L, NACE, ASTM for steel pipes, DIN 30670 for three-layer polyethylene
coating. In cases where the customers demand the implementation of other well-known international standards
such as DIN, EN and ISO or other needed specifications, the laboratory can operate as required.
The quality control laboratory consists of seven sections of sample-making workshop, heat operation workshop,
mechanical properties of materials laboratory, chemical analysis laboratory for determining the chemical
elements of metals, the corrosion laboratory, the polyethylene coating laboratory for the inside and outside of the
pipes and the metallographic laboratory. It tests the products in an appropriate building and a modern
atmosphere.
In the sample-making workshop, by using the machine tools, the necessary samples are prepared according to
the required standards or as demanded by the customer and sent to the appropriate laboratories.
The heat treatment workshop, by planning appropriately and having a heattreatment furnace with dimensions of
25x25x35 cm equipped with the program control and the one with the dimensions of 80x80x150 cm, can
increase the effective lifetime of the manufactured pieces for several times.
Among the important tests conducted in the laboratory of the mechanical properties of the materials are: 1)
tensile test, for evaluate the quality of the weld or raw materials, which is performed by the machines measuring
tensile strength in the weld bead area or pipe body, 2)bend test, to measure bending strength of the weld bead
area 3) D.W.T.T (Drop Weight Tear Test), to measure cutting and tear, 4) impact test, to measure resistance
against impact in pipe body, weld bead and its adjacent area, 5)hardness test, for measuring hardness of the pipe
body, weld bead and its adjacent area.
In the chemical laboratory, all chemical analyses for studying the quality of ferroalloys, aluminum alloys and
copper alloys are performed by the Spectro lab Model M5, which is fully computerized. This instrument can
measure and record 42 important elements of the ferrous, aluminum and copper alloys.
In the metal corrosion laboratory, which is a unique laboratory throughout the world with a certificate from
Delingen of Germany, tests for: - measurement of hydrogen included cracks (HIC), - cracks caused by sulfide
stresses (SSCC), - for measuring the amount of permeation of hydrogen are carried out.
The polyethylene laboratory department, equipped with modern complicated equipment according to ISO,
ASTM and DIN30670 standards, carries out all technical tests for determining the quality of coating materials
on the pipe, which include the penetrability test, impact test, fluidity test, test of resistance against the
adhesiveness, the electric resistance test, the heat resistance test, test of resistance against surrounding corrosion,
test of epoxy resistance corrosion against seawater, test of ultra violet rays stability, test of tensile and test of
elongation as well as test of resistance against adhesiveness in a period.
In the end, the metallographic laboratory, equipped with an optical microscopes with a magnification factor of
1600, a Polaroid camera, an optical microscope with a magnification factor of 1000 equipped with monitor and
color printer, stereo microscope with magnification of 200 equipped with monitor and color printer, as well as
non-contact thermometer device with a range around 150 °C to 1500 °C, follows up the necessary research
activities and also studies the microscopic structure of the cracks for their recognition and detecting.
The managers of this unit, in addition to testing the products, carry out other tests such as evaluating the welding
manpower, testing the various types of weld and tests on the good or bad condition of the primary materials.
With an area of 800 m2¬ in two storeys in the nearest place to the mills, the laboratory department could obtain
an ISO 17025 certificate for Ahvaz Pipe Mills Co. after allocating an appropriate space and a modern building
for its tests and adapting its activities to the rules of the standard.
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