Method for manufacturing seamless pipes by the plug rolling process

The invention relates to a method for manufacturing seamless tubes by the plug rolling process, in which a hollow ingot is expanded and stretched in at least two passes over a fixed plug supported on a bar, in a roll stand with a closed groove, giving a tube blank, the blank being pulled off from the bar in a direction opposite to the rolling direction by means of a driver unit after each pass and being rotated through 90 DEG about the longitudinal axes before the following pass, the plug being changed after each pass. In order to modify a plug rolling method of conventional type in such a way that it is possible to dispense with the smoothing roll units and the reheating furnace, it is proposed that, in the case of a plurality of successive passes, the spacing of the rolls is varied at least in one of the passes, preferably the first, in the region of the groove base to give a wall thickness which takes account of the drawing out of this wall region in the subsequent rolling pass, ensuring a uniform wall thickness of the finished plug blank over its circumference.