How Much Do You Know About Seamless Pipes?

Seamless steel pipes are round, square, and rectangular steel tubes with hollow sections and no joints. They are manufactured from steel ingots or solid billets through perforation, and then undergo processes such as hot rolling, cold rolling, or cold drawing. Due to their hollow cross-section, seamless steel pipes are widely used to convey fluids. Compared to solid steel, like round steel, they provide similar bending and torsional strength while being lighter in weight, making them an economic section steel frequently utilized in structural and mechanical components.

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The Production Process of Seamless Steel Pipe

① Main production process (main inspection process) of hot-rolled seamless steel pipe:

Preparation and inspection of pipe blank → heating of pipe blank → piercing → pipe rolling → reheating of raw pipe → sizing (reducing) → heat treatment → straightening of finished pipe → finishing → inspection (non-destructive, physical and chemical, bench test) → warehousing

② Main production process of cold-rolled (drawn) seamless steel pipe:

Blank preparation → pickling and lubrication → cold rolling (drawing) → heat treatment → straightening → finishing → inspection

Application and Classification of Seamless Steel Pipe

Seamless steel pipe is a kind of economic section steel that plays a very important role in the national economy. It is extensively used in industries such as petroleum, chemical industry, boilers, power stations, shipping, machinery manufacturing, automotive, aviation, aerospace, energy, geology, construction, military, and more.

Classification:

• ① By section shape: circular section pipe and special-shaped section pipe
• ② By material: carbon steel pipe, alloy steel pipe, stainless steel pipe, and composite pipe
• ③ By connection mode: threaded connection pipe and welded pipe
• ④ By production mode: hot-rolled (extruded, jacked, and expanded) pipe, cold-rolled (drawn) pipe
• ⑤ By use: boiler pipe, oil well pipe, pipeline pipe, structural pipe, fertilizer pipe

Development History of Seamless Steel Pipe

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Seamless steel pipe production has evolved over nearly a century. In 1885, the Mannesmann brothers from Germany invented the two-roll cross-rolling piercer, followed by the periodic pipe mill in 1891. The Swiss engineer R.C. Stiefel introduced the automatic pipe mill (or top pipe mill) in 1903. Modern seamless steel pipe production began to take shape with these innovations. Various extension mills, including the continuous pipe mill and top pipe mill, soon followed.

By the 1930s, advancements such as the three-roll pipe rolling mill, extruder, and periodic cold rolling mill improved the variety and quality of steel pipes. In the 1960s, continuous pipe mills, three-roll piercers, and the successful application of stretch reducing mills and continuous casting billets significantly enhanced production efficiency, boosting seamless pipe's competitiveness against welded pipes. In the 1970s, both seamless and welded pipes saw simultaneous growth, with global steel pipe output increasing annually by more than 5%.

Since 1953, China has placed significant emphasis on the seamless steel pipe industry, establishing a production system capable of rolling various large, medium, and small pipes.

Steel pipes are long, hollow tubes used for various purposes, produced by either welded or seamless methods. Initially, raw steel is cast into a workable form. It is then stretched into a seamless tube or its edges are forced together and welded. Introduced in the early 1800s, these methods evolved into the modern processes used today, producing millions of tons of steel pipe each year, making it the most widely used steel industry product.

History of Steel Pipes

Pipes have been used for thousands of years, with ancient agriculturalists first diverting water from streams into fields. Evidence shows that by 2000 B.C., the Chinese used reed pipes for water transport, while other ancient civilizations used clay tubes. Lead pipes emerged in Europe during the first century A.D., and tropical regions used bamboo tubes. In Colonial America, wooden pipes were common, with Boston’s first waterworks in 1652 using hollow logs.

Modern welded steel pipe development began in the early 1800s. William Murdock invented a coal-burning lamp system in 1815 and used discarded musket barrels to transport coal gas through a continuous pipeline. His successful lighting system spurred demand for long metal tubes, prompting inventors to develop new pipe-making processes.

In 1824, James Russell patented an early metal tube production method by joining opposite edges of a flat iron strip. The metal was heated, folded together with a drop hammer, and sealed. However, this method was soon replaced when Cornelius Whitehouse developed the butt-weld process in 1825, the foundation of modern pipe-making. His method involved drawing heated thin iron sheets through a cone-shaped opening to curl the edges and form a pipe, then welding the ends.

Although improvements like John Moon’s 1911 continuous process allowed for uninterrupted pipe production, the need for seamless metal pipes also arose. Initially made by drilling through a solid cylinder in the late 1800s, seamless pipes were ideal for bicycle frames due to their thin walls and strength. The first seamless tube plant opened in 1895, later supplying gasoline and oil lines for automobiles and larger oil deposits.

By 1840, ironworkers could produce seamless tubes by drilling through a metal billet, heating, and drawing it through dies to elongate it into a pipe. This inefficient method often resulted in uneven pipes. An improved method patented in 1888 cast the metal around a fireproof brick core, removed once cooled to leave a hollow center. Modern roller techniques have since replaced these methods.

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