Seamless tube is made from round steel ingots through production processes such as cold rolling, cold drawing, or hot extrusion. Due to the use of round steel ingots for seamless pipe processing, the precision of the steel pipe is low, the wall thickness is uneven, the brightness of the inner and outer surfaces is low, the cost of sizing increases, and after multiple heating cycles, black spots are easily present on the inner and outer surfaces of the pipe, which are difficult to remove.
Precision stainless steel pipes come in both welded and seamless forms. But most people think of seamless pipes when they talk about precision pipes, thinking that precision pipes are seamless pipes. In fact, precision pipes also have welded pipes. Next, let's talk about the difference between seamless stainless steel pipes and precision stainless steel pipes.
Stainless steel seamless pipe:
Seamless tube is made from round steel ingots through production processes such as cold rolling, cold drawing, or hot extrusion. Due to the use of round steel ingots for seamless pipe processing, the precision of the steel pipe is low, the wall thickness is uneven, the brightness of the inner and outer surfaces is low, the cost of sizing increases, and after multiple heating cycles, black spots are easily present on the inner and outer surfaces of the pipe, which are difficult to remove.
Moreover, the steel composition used to produce seamless pipes only meets the basic requirements of ASTM, and various unstable factors may occur during the welding process, making it difficult to weld firmly and not fully penetrated. Seamless pipes may also experience metal delamination, residual stress, and other issues. The price of seamless pipes is even higher than that of welded pipes.
Precision stainless steel tube:
Precision stainless steel pipes are welded by coiling steel strips through a machine and molds, and welded pipes avoid multiple heating processes during processing, making the production process more environmentally friendly and safe. Due to the use of processed stainless steel strips as raw materials, the precision pipes produced have high precision, uniform wall thickness, high inner and outer surface brightness, and can be customized according to customer needs.
Moreover, precision tubes are formed by precise grinding and micro finishing of steel coils by precision machines, resulting in smaller thickness tolerances. When the chemical composition is the same, the steel used to produce precision pipes contains chemical components suitable for welding, so its strength will be relatively higher. Precision stainless steel welded pipes also have advantages such as uniform wall thickness, low residual stress, high weld strength, and good consistency.
Moreover, the quality of precision stainless steel pipes is better than the comprehensive quality of seamless stainless steel pipes, but the market price is only half of that of seamless pipes.
The above is the difference between seamless stainless steel pipes and precision stainless steel pipes. In recent years, the development situation of the precision stainless steel pipe industry has been relatively good, with significant progress in terms of scale, quality, production technology, and especially its demand areas are gradually expanding. In addition, with the increasing maturity of stainless steel welded pipe technology, many products can replace stainless steel seamless pipes, such as heat exchanger tubes, medium and low pressure boiler tubes, etc.
