Difference b/w Seamless Stainless Steel Pipes & Welded Stainless Steel Pipes?

What’s the difference between seamless stainless steel pipes & welded stainless steel pipes?

Do you know the difference between the seamless stainless steel pipes and welded stainless steel pipes? No? Let’s just start with their introduction first.

Seamless Stainless Steel Pipes are usually made from the single metal piece, which doesn’t have any joint steel pipe on the surface. They are made from the ‘Billet,’ which is further heated and pushed to give that perfect hollow tube shape.

One of the best and highlighting features of seamless stainless steel pipes is that they are manufactured in a broad array of sizes and schedules as per the requirement. However, there’s one major restriction whenever seamless steel pipes are manufactured, i.e. large diameter pipe.

From bends, elbows to tees, a seamless stainless steel pipe is majorly used in the manufacturing of pipe fittings. As mentioned above, s seamless stainless steel pipe is solid metal tubes connected without any welding joint; thus it serves as an ideal choice for commercial applications.

For instance, oil field, shipbuilding, chemical industries, construction, pressure vessel, offshore rigs, and so forth. As per the supply, seamless steel pipes are manufactured to deliver the right product to the end consumer.

Welded Stainless Steel Pipes or Electronic Resistance Welded Pipes (ERW) are manufactured with the help of cold forming steel coils into a round cylindrical pipe. To manufacture Welded pipes, HR coils are required, and the best part about them is that they can be manufactured in large sizes, unlike seamless stainless steel pipes. When it comes to comparison, welded pipes are a bit cheaper than the seamless steel pipes, but they are weak in strength because they are welded.

Welded stainless steel pipes are used normally to transport liquid, which includes gas and petrol. Not to mention it, welded pipes are significant in the world line pipe transporting area.

When it comes to the performance of welded stainless steel pipes, particularly it’s bearing capacity, it quite amazing than the ordinary steel. From hydraulic equipment, voltage devices to piping connections, welded steel pipes are extensively used.

Now, let’s move forward from the introduction and understand in-depth the difference between seamless stainless steel pipes and welded pipes.

1. Pipe Length

One of the major differences between seamless steel pipes and welded pipes is its length. Yes, seamless stainless steel pipes are short in length because there’s a restriction on the manufacturing.

On the other hand, welded pipes or even tubes can belong because there is no restriction while manufacturing.

2. Corrosion Resistant 

Seamless steel pipes and tubes are normally corrosion-resistant, until and unless they are subjected to a corrosive environment. Due to its high resistance to corrosion, seamless steel pipe and tubes are preferred instead of welded pipes.

But of course, one cannot ignore the benefits of both the products. On the contrary, welded stainless steel pipes are more prone to corrosion as they are homogeneous. Welded pipes offer different malleability and less corrosion resistance benefits.

In the case of seamless steel pipes, any such issues of homogeneity are eliminated due to which they don’t corrode.

3. Appearance 

When we talk about the appearance of seamless stainless steel and welded stainless steel pipes, welded steel pipes take the lead. Welded pipes are in high surface quality due to the surface of the hot-rolled coil.

While manufacturing the welded steel pipes, a hot-rolled coil is used as raw material, which makes the steel pipe in good quality and appearance.

Seamless steel pipes are manufactured using billet as a raw material. Even with the help of a hot rolling process, the manufacturers cannot eliminate the defects of billet.

It requires polishing after the product is manufactured. Hence, welded steel pipes are much better in appearance than seamless steel pipes just because of the difference in the raw material.

4. Performance 

Coming to the performance of seamless steel and welded steel pipes. Just like both are manufactured using different raw material, their pressure and load-bearing capacity are undeniably different too.

Seamless steel pipes are good in pressure and load-bearing capacity in comparison to welded steel pipes. Not just the pressure capacity, the strength of the seamless steel pipes is equally higher.

Due to welding seam in welded steel pipes, the quality and then, performance is no doubt affected overall. Welded pipes are usually preferred in aerospace, electronics, and automobile industries, which puts low pressure on the pipes.

On the other side, seamless steel pipes are preferred in chemical, thermal, and even mechanical workloads, thus they are more reliable.

5. Pricing 

Now, when it comes to pricing, seamless steel pipes are higher in cost as compared to welded steel pipes. Why? Well, it’s simply because of the manufacturing equipment and of course, different manufacturing process and raw material usage.

Sometimes, you will come across expensive welded pipes in the market, and in this situation, you can either choose according to your requirement or go with seamless steel pipes because of better quality and performance level. The choice is completely yours!

CONCLUSION 

To sum it all up, it must be clear about the difference between Seamless Steel Pipes and Welded Pipes. Welded stainless steel pipes have a weak point because of the presence of welded seam; however, the seamless steel pipes and tubes are solid, and has the strength to bear pressure capacity! Are you looking for welded pipes and tubes or seamless stainless steel pipes? Get in touch with the professionals of Maven Stainless Steel.