Recently, the world's first extra-large-diameter mandrel mill (MPM) line was officially delivered and commissioned at Hengyang Valin Steel Tube Co., Ltd. in Hunan, marking a historic leap for China's extra-large-diameter seamless steel pipe manufacturing from "catching up" to "leading." As the core technical service provider for the intelligent plant construction of the project, IET, USTB deeply participated in the top-level design and system construction of production-line intelligence. Functions related to main-line production have been successively put into use, and the per-piece tracking system for the heat-treatment area and multiple sets of intelligent equipment have simultaneously entered the trial stage, injecting a strong "digital core" into this world-class production line.

The Hengyang Valin extra-large-diameter mandrel mill project represents a total investment of RMB 7.8 billion and is the world's first and largest-diameter advanced mandrel mill production line, with a designed annual capacity of 800,000 tons. It can produce high-end seamless steel pipes with outer diameters of 323.8–630 mm and wall thicknesses of 7.2–65 mm, widely serving major national strategic fields such as oil and gas transmission, nuclear power equipment, marine engineering, and pressure vessels. The line achieves one-pass continuous rolling of extra-large-diameter steel pipes for the first time globally, completely eliminating the traditional hot-expansion process, greatly simplifying the flow and improving quality stability.

Relying on the technical accumulation of two national-level platforms — the National Engineering Research Center of High-Efficiency Rolling and Intelligent Manufacturing and the National Engineering Research Center for Advanced Equipment of Strip Production — the IET, USTB project team went deep into the site and tailored an integrated intelligent plant solution covering both main-line production and the heat-treatment area. Following the principle of "overall planning, phased implementation, and steady commissioning," and combined with on-site equipment commissioning and production rhythms, the solution was verified and implemented item by item, ensuring the deep integration and simultaneous effectiveness of the intelligent system and process equipment. At present, all major system functions have been successively put into use, the data links of all processes have been connected, automatic issuance of production parameters, real-time collection of process data, and visualized management and control of operation progress have been realized, the efficiency of production instruction transmission has been significantly improved, and manual entry and paper documents have been greatly reduced, providing solid digital support for the stable operation and capacity ramp-up of the production line.

The smooth commissioning of the intelligent plant system for the Hengyang Valin 630 project is an important implementation achievement of IET, USTB's intelligent manufacturing technology in the seamless steel pipe field. In the future, IET, USTB will continue to deepen the integrated application of intelligent algorithms and process models, help Hengyang Valin fully unleash its digital efficiency, and contribute "IET strength" to the independent controllability of China's high-end seamless steel pipe industry and its advancement toward the top of the global value chain.