In the industrial piping and structural applications, seamless steel pipes occupy a prominent position due to their unique advantages. Their differences from welded pipes and their inherent characteristics are key factors in selecting the right pipe.
Seamless steel pipes offer significant core advantages over welded pipes. Welded pipes are made by welding steel plates together, resulting in weld seams. This inherently limits their pressure resistance and can lead to leakage under high-temperature and high-pressure conditions due to stress concentration at the seams. Seamless steel pipes, on the other hand, are formed through a single roll forming process, eliminating any seams. They can withstand higher pressures and temperatures, making them more reliable in applications such as oil and gas transportation and high-pressure boilers. Furthermore, seamless steel pipes offer greater wall thickness uniformity, eliminating localized wall thickness variations caused by welding, improving structural stability, and offering enhanced corrosion resistance. Their service life is generally over 30% longer than welded pipes.
The production process for seamless steel pipes is rigorous and complex, primarily involving hot rolling and cold drawing. The hot-rolling process heats a solid steel billet to approximately 1200°C, then rolls it through a piercing mill into a hollow tube. The tube then passes through a sizing mill to adjust the diameter and a reducing mill to control the wall thickness. Finally, it undergoes cooling, straightening, and flaw detection. The cold-drawing process uses the hot-rolled tube as raw material. After pickling to remove the oxide scale, it is drawn into shape using a cold-drawing mill. Annealing is then required to eliminate internal stresses, followed by finishing and inspection. Of the two processes, hot-rolled tubes are suitable for large diameters and thick walls, while cold-drawn tubes are more advantageous for small diameters and high precision applications.
Seamless steel pipes include both domestic and international standard grades to meet diverse needs.
Domestic materials are primarily carbon steel and alloy steel:
20# steel, the most commonly used carbon steel, offers excellent plasticity and ease of processing, making it widely used in general pipelines.
45# steel offers higher strength and is suitable for mechanical structural components. Among alloy steel pipes, 15CrMo steel is resistant to high temperatures and creep, making it a core material for power plant boilers.
304 stainless steel seamless pipe, due to its excellent corrosion resistance, is highly favored in the chemical and food processing industries.
International standard materials are also widely used:
According to the US ASTM standard, A106-B carbon steel seamless pipe is a common choice for oil and natural gas transportation. Its tensile strength reaches 415-550 MPa and can withstand operating temperatures from -29°C to 454°C.
A335-P91 alloy pipe, thanks to its chromium-molybdenum-vanadium alloy composition, offers excellent high-temperature strength and oxidation resistance, making it commonly used in the main steam piping of supercritical power plant boilers.
According to the European EN standard, P235GH carbon steel from the EN 10216-2 series is suitable for medium- and low-pressure boilers and pressure vessels.
P92 alloy pipe surpasses P91 in high-temperature endurance strength and is the preferred choice for large-scale thermal power projects. JIS-standard STPG370 carbon pipe offers high cost-effectiveness and is widely used in general industrial piping.
SUS316L stainless steel pipe, based on 304 stainless steel, adds molybdenum to significantly enhance its resistance to chloride ion corrosion, making it suitable for marine engineering and chemical acid and alkali transportation.
In terms of dimensions, seamless steel pipes range in outer diameter from 10mm to 630mm, with wall thicknesses from 1mm to 70mm.
In conventional engineering, outer diameters of 15mm to 108mm and wall thicknesses of 2mm to 10mm are most commonly used.
For example, pipes with an outer diameter of 25mm and a wall thickness of 3mm are often used in hydraulic systems, while pipes with an outer diameter of 89mm and a wall thickness of 6mm are suitable for chemical media transportation.
First, verify the material certification to ensure that the chemical composition and mechanical properties meet design requirements. For example, the yield strength of 20# steel must be no less than 245 MPa, and the yield strength of ASTM A106-B must be ≥240 MPa.
Second, inspect the appearance quality. The surface should be free of defects such as cracks and folds, and the wall thickness deviation must be controlled within ±10%.
Furthermore, select products with appropriate processes and materials based on the application scenario. Hot-rolled pipes and alloys such as A335-P91 are preferred for high-pressure environments, while cold-drawn pipes are recommended for precision instrumentation. SUS316L stainless steel pipes are recommended for marine or high-corrosion environments.
Finally, request that the supplier provide a flaw detection report, focusing on identifying hidden internal defects to avoid quality issues that could impact project safety.
This concludes the discussion for this issue. If you would like to learn more about seamless steel pipes, please contact us through the following methods and our professional sales team will be happy to assist you.
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Post time: Sep-04-2025