Stainless Steel Tubing
What’s Stainless Steel Tubing?
SS 316 tubing, O.D = 12.7 mm, wall thickness = 1.0 mm, ASTM A269 Gr. TP316.
Distinguished from stainless steel pipe, the stainless steel tubing, or stainless steel tube, is produced to the actual outside diameter and minimum or average wall thickness specified by the purchaser. The stainless steel tubing may be hot- or cold-finished in seamless or welded type. Its wall thickness may be specified in mm or inch unit. Sometimes the wall thickness of the tubing is given in gauge number, most commonly in the Birmingham wire gauge (BWG) system.
Tubing Materials
The stainless steel tubing can be manufactured from an extensive range of austenitic stainless steels and duplex stainless steels:
- Austenitic stainless steel: TP 304/304L, TP 316/316L, TP 317/317L, TP 321, TP 347, TP 348, TP 309S, TP 310S, 254SMO (UNS S31254), AL6XN (UNS N08367), Incoloy 915 (UNS N08925), UNS N08926, 904L (UNS N08904).
- Duplex stainless steel: UNS S31803, UNS S32750, UNS S32205.
Besides, the tubing materials are also available in some typical non-ferrous metals such as:
- Nickel & nickel alloy: Nickel 200 (UNS N02200), Nickel 201 (UNS N02201), Monel alloy 400 (UNS N04400), Inconel alloy 600 (UNS N06600), UNS N06025, Incoloy 800 (UNS N08800), Incoloy 800H (UNS N08810), Incoloy 800HT (UNS N08811), Incoloy 825 (UNS N08825), Hastelloy C-276 (UNS N10276), Hastelloy C-22 (UNS N06022), Alloy 20 (UNS N08020).
- Titanium & Copper: titanium Gr. 1, Gr. 2, Gr. 7, Gr. 12; UNS C10200/ C10300/ C22000.
Standard Specifications for Tubing
- For stainless steel: ASTM A213, ASTM A269, ASTM A632, ASTM A270, ASTM A789, EN 10216, DIN 2391.
- For non-ferrous metals: ASTM B68/ B75/ B135; ASTM B163/ B165/ B167/ B622; ASTM B338.
Sizes, Dimensions, Weights and End Connections
Generally, the stainless steel tubing is commercially available in O.D sizes from 0.500″ (12.70 mm) to 10.000″ (273.00 mm) and wall thicknesses from 0.050″ (1.27 mm) to 1.25″ (31.75 mm). The instrumentation tubing is generally supplied with an actual outside diameter of 1/4″ (6.35 mm), 5/16″ (7.94 mm), 3/8″ (9.53 mm), 1/2″ (12.7 mm), 5/8″ (15.88 mm), 3/4″ (19.05 mm), 1″ (25.4 mm), 1-1/2″ (31.75 mm), 1-1/2″ (38.1 mm). Typical wall thicknesses available are: 0.035″ (0.89 mm), 0.049″ (1.24 mm), 0.065″ (1.65 mm), 0.083″ (2.11 mm), 0.095″ (2.41 mm), 0.109″ (2.77 mm), 0.120″ (3.05 mm). The stainless steel tubing can be provided in length of 2 meters, 3 meters, 4 meters and 6 meters. Especially, the stainless steel capillary tubing, which has very small diameter, is available in sizes under 1/2″ down to 0.050″ (12.7 mm to 1.27 mm) in diameter and wall thickness less than 0.065″ down to 0.005″ (1.65 mm to 0.13 mm).
The unit weight (kg/meter) of stainless steel tubing can be calculated by using the formula: mass = (O.D – W.T) * W.T * 0.0246615 * Length. Typical weights of conventional tubing are available on our website. The end connection of the tubing can be classified as plain ends (PE), butt welding ends (BW), and threaded/ screwed ends.
Heat Treatment & Surface Finish
The stainless steel tubing is generally provided in bright annealed (BA) or annealed & pickled (AP) conditions unless otherwise specified by the purchaser. Usually electro-polishing(EP) or mechanical polishing (MP) is required to remove the burrs and other imperfections on the tubing surface.
Inspection and Tests
Each heat lot of the stainless steel tubing shall take PMI and tension test to determine its chemical composition and mechanical properties. Dimensional examination and visual inspection shall be carefully conducted. The flaring test shall be conducted for seamless tubing; The flange test and reverse flattening test shall be conducted for welded tubing. Hardness test shall also be taken to determine the Brinell or Rockwell hardness of the tubes. Additionally, hydrostatic test and eddy current test are available when specified by the purchaser.
Applications
The stainless steel tubing can be used for a variety of corrosion resistant applications in high- or low-temperature conditions. They can be applied for instrumentation tubing, chemical and petrochemical processing, pharmaceuticals, offshore and marine industry, automotive, heat exchanger and other pressure vessels, semiconductor industry, power generation and biomedical industry, etc. The applicability and calculation of stainless steel tubing shall be in accordance with relative ASME Codes such as ASME B31.1 and ASME B31.3.
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