INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Saudi Aramco signs deal with Schlumberger

Saudi Aramco has awarded Schlumberger two lump-sum contracts for drilling rigs and services for oil and gas wells. Under the contracts, Schlumberger Integrated Drilling Services (IDS) will provide drilling rigs and services for up to 146 gas wells and up to 128 oil wells over three years.

Saudi Aramco’s senior vice president – upstream, Mohammed Qahtani, says: “Saudi Aramco and Schlumberger are key partners who, under these contracts, will be able to bring innovative technologies to the field, and deploy them in our large-scale operations. We have a great history of success with Schlumberger throughout our 75 year partnership in Saudi Arabia, and have now set the scene for even greater achievements in the future.”
For further information www.saudiaramco.com

Air conditioning plant inaugurated

Mitsubishi Electric Corp has announced that the new 40,000 sq m factory of Mitsubishi Electric Turkey (Klima Sistemleri Üretim Anonim Şirketi), which develops and manufactures air conditioners for the Turkish market, commenced manufacturing on 12 December.

Annual production of 500,000 indoor and outdoor units is targeted by the fiscal year ending March 2021, by which time the plant hopes to employ around 400 people. Mitsubishi Electric’s air conditioning and refrigeration systems business in Europe is expanding steadily, with demand in Turkey expected to increase in line with the country’s economic and population growth.
For further information www.mitsubishielectric.com

IKCO begins Haima S5 mass production

The production line of the new Haima S5 has been officially inaugurated at Iran Khodro’s Khorasan (IKKCO) site during a ceremony attended by top managers from both IKCO and Haima. The move is in line with the company’s five-year strategy to introduce and produce a new vehicle every year. Recent launches include the 2.0-litre Haima S7, the Haima S7 with a 1.8-litre turbo engine, the new Suzuki Grand Vitara, and now the Haima S5.

The Haima S5 is the fruit of close co-operation between Haima and Italy’s LDA Design, and is an SUV said to offer high acceleration, a robust engine and good performance. Other companies like Bosch and Punch Industry are also involved. The IKKCO site in northeast Iran is dedicated to the production of SUVs.
For further information www.ikco.ir

Less than a month until SteelFab

The 14th edition of SteelFab is set to take place on 15-18 January at the Expo Centre in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. As the region’s most prominent business event specialising in steel fabrication, SteelFab 2018 will boast a large number of steel industry professionals and decision-makers among its exhibitors and visitors, as well as an interesting seminar programme.

The show presents modern technologies in steel forming, metal-cutting, finishing, milling, and heavy machinery, as well as other related engineering applications. SteelFab attracts worldwide attendance and participation both from national companies and hundreds of foreign firms and leading international brands in the field. XYZ Machine Tools and Chester Machine Tools will be among the 54 UK exhibitors at this year’s event. Around 8000 visitors attended the 2017 show from 83 different countries.
For further information www.steelfabme.com

Shoulder mills for challenging materials

Designed to boost productivity when milling challenging materials, Industrial Tooling Corporation (ITC) has launched the new VSM17 line of shoulder-milling tools from Widia into the UK market.

The 90° shoulder milling platform offers aggressive ramping angles of up to 8.8° with guided internal coolant supply; features that combine to help elevate material removal rates and chip clearance. The steel VSM17 tool bodies are available with screw-on, Weldon and cylindrical end mills from 25 to 40 mm diameter (with regular and long shanks), shell mills from 40 to 160 mm, and the M4000 cartridge milling system in diameters from 125 to 315 mm. The various tool bodies incorporate an optimised chip gash that is designed to optimise stability, chip removal and cutting efficiency.
This latest addition to the Widia 90° VSM series is suitable for everything from light, precision machining to medium roughing. The tool’s two-edged 16 mm inserts incorporate an embedded wiper facet for high surface finishes, an additional margin on the clearance face that strengthens the cutting edge and a positive rake design which generates a soft cutting action.
The inserts are offered in a range of grades for machining cast iron, steel, stainless steel, aluminium and a variety of additional materials. Each insert grade is offered with the option of the ALP, ML, MM and MH insert geometries. ALP is a peripheral ground geometry for the rough to finish machining of aluminium alloys, whereas ML is designated for light to finish cutting on stainless steel and titanium. MM and MH are general and heavy-duty cutting grades for a multitude of material types.
For further information www.itc-ltd.co.uk