Stainless steel pipe and tube made without a weld seam, by piercing a solid round billet and elongating it, then often cold drawn or pilgered to size. Seamless products are chosen for high pressure, high temperature, critical heat exchangers, instrumentation and sour or corrosive service in oil and gas, power, chemical and desalination plants.
A seamless stainless pipe starts as a round billet that is heated and pierced into a hollow shell, either on a rotary piercing mill or, for many stainless and high-alloy grades, by hot extrusion through a die over a mandrel. The hollow is then rolled or extruded to size (hot finished) or reduced further by cold pilgering and cold drawing, followed by solution annealing and pickling. Cold-finished tube has closer tolerances, a better surface and thinner walls than hot-finished pipe.
Pipe and tube are different products in practice. Pipe is sized by nominal pipe size and schedule — the stainless schedules 5S, 10S, 40S and 80S of ASME B36.19M, with heavier walls taken from ASME B36.10M — and is used in piping systems to ASTM A312 or EN 10216-5. Tube is sized by actual outside diameter and wall thickness and is used in heat exchangers, boilers and instrumentation to ASTM A213, A269 or the EN and JIS equivalents.
The grade decides the service. 304L and 316L cover most process piping; 321, 347 and 304H are used at high temperature; 904L and the 6% molybdenum grades handle acids and chloride; duplex 2205 and super duplex 2507 combine strength with resistance to chloride stress-corrosion cracking and are standard for seawater, produced water and sour service. Oil and gas buyers usually require NACE MR0175 / ISO 15156 compliance and their own project specifications on top of ASTM.
The GCC is one of the largest buyers of stainless and duplex seamless pipe in the world for oil and gas, petrochemical and LNG projects and for desalination plants. Most is imported from Europe, Japan, India, China and Korea, often through mills approved by national oil companies such as Saudi Aramco and ADNOC; regional stockists hold 304L, 316L and duplex pipe in the common schedules.
Pipe is ordered by NPS (or DN) and schedule; tube by OD × wall, with minimum or average wall stated. The tables below give ASME B36.19M and JIS sizes and masses. The steel weight calculator handles any other size.
Full dimensions: Stainless pipe sizes and schedules (ASME B36.19M) · JIS G3459 stainless pipe sizes and weights · JIS G3463 boiler and heat exchanger tube weights · Stainless steel grade equivalents (AISI, UNS, EN, JIS, GB)
| Region | Standard | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| USA | ASTM A312/A312M ASTM |
Seamless, welded and heavily cold worked austenitic stainless steel pipes |
| USA | ASTM A213/A213M ASTM |
Seamless ferritic and austenitic alloy-steel boiler, superheater and heat-exchanger tubes |
| USA | ASTM A269/A269M ASTM |
Seamless and welded austenitic stainless steel tubing for general service (including instrumentation) |
| USA | ASTM A790/A790M ASTM |
Seamless and welded ferritic/austenitic (duplex) stainless steel pipe |
| USA | ASTM A789/A789M ASTM |
Seamless and welded ferritic/austenitic (duplex) stainless steel tubing for general service |
| USA | ASTM A376/A376M ASTM |
Seamless austenitic steel pipe for high-temperature service |
| USA | ASTM A999/A999M ASTM |
General requirements for alloy and stainless steel pipe — tolerances and testing |
| USA | ASME B36.19M ASME |
Stainless steel pipe — dimensions and schedules 5S, 10S, 40S and 80S |
| USA | ASME SA-312 / SA-213 ASME |
ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code adoptions of ASTM A312 and A213 |
| Europe | EN 10216-5 CEN-CENELEC |
Seamless steel tubes for pressure purposes — stainless steel tubes |
| Europe | EN 10297-2 CEN-CENELEC |
Seamless circular steel tubes for mechanical and general engineering purposes — stainless steel tubes |
| International | ISO 1127 ISO |
Stainless steel tubes — dimensions, tolerances and conventional masses per unit length |
| Japan | JIS G3459 JSA |
Stainless steel pipes |
| Japan | JIS G3463 JSA |
Stainless steel boiler and heat exchanger tubes |
| China | GB/T 14976 SAC |
Seamless stainless steel pipes for fluid transport |
| China | GB/T 13296 SAC |
Seamless stainless steel tubes for boilers and heat exchangers |
| Russia / CIS | GOST 9941 | Seamless cold- and warm-deformed corrosion-resistant steel tubes |
| International | NACE MR0175 / ISO 15156 ISO |
Materials for use in H2S-containing environments in oil and gas production |
Grade equivalents and the standards bodies: Steel grades & standards
Stockist - Distributor · Fabrication · Contractors · Shanghai
Steel Mills - Agents & Traders · Stockist - Distributor · Amman
Steel Mills - Agents & Traders · Stockist - Distributor · Other Steel Users · Sharjah
Steel Mills - Agents & Traders · Coil Service Center · Stockist - Distributor · Fabrication · Jeddah
Steel Mills - Agents & Traders · Stockist - Distributor · Other Steel Users · Sharjah
Steel Mills - Agents & Traders · Coil Service Center · Stockist - Distributor · Fabrication · Jeddah
No open offers or inquiries for this product right now.
Translation isn’t available right now. The site is shown in English.
Loading translation…
