Seamless Tube Suppliers

Essential Guide to Choosing Suppliers for Your Projects

As a leading global supplier of special metal alloy tubes, Special Metal Alloys has compiled this guide to steer you through all the pitfalls of finding the product and the right seamless tube suppliers and help you make an informed choice.

When selecting seamless tubing for your projects, there are a myriad of factors to consider, including the type of material and its properties, the shape of the tube, grade, strength, price, size limitations, quality, compliance standards, aesthetics, chemical reactions, and much more.

Add to this the uncertainty of logistical efficiency, reliability, lead times, and product range offered by various suppliers in the UK, and you end up with huge challenges to ensure you get the right product at the right time.

For expert advice or a quote, contact us via our contact form or email your enquiry to sales@specialmetalalloys.co.uk. 

Understanding Seamless Tubes

As the name implies, seamless tubes are made from a single piece of metal, with no welding seams or joints. Tubes can be connected to others using threads, flanges, or threaded unions that can be joined with or without welding, depending on the application.

Seamless tubing is available in different lengths, thicknesses, diameters, and a variety of metals and alloys such as steel, carbon steel, stainless steel, tungsten, titanium, nickel, molybdenum, duplex, and austenitic, in different grades, according to customer needs.

Compared to other types of mechanical tubing, seamless tubes are much stronger, have greater yield strength, can withstand much greater pressure, and have tighter tolerances.

What is the main difference between seamless and welded tubes?

The pressure capacity of seamless pipes is higher than welded ones, eliminating the potential weakness of a welded joint, and the surface is much smoother, reducing the danger of corrosion.

What is the difference between a tube and a pipe?

Pipes are always round, whereas tubing can be almost any shape, in dimensions, length and profile, including round, square, rectangular, cylindrical, oval, flat oval, etc.

As a general rule, tubes are used more often in applications requiring smaller diameters, tight spaces, and when precise outside diameters and greater stability are needed.  Pipes are generally used to transport liquids or gas over longer distances, and where the capacity is of greater importance.

When should you use seamless pipe?

Seamless tubing is used for transporting gas and liquids in high-pressure, high-corrosive, and high-temperature environments such as power generation; pharmaceutical; oil, gas, and petroleum; hydrocarbon; hydraulics; and HVAC industries.

How are seamless tubes manufactured?

There are two main processes for manufacturing seamless tubes, namely cold-drawn and hot-rolled.

Hot-rolled seamless steel tube is made by heating a cylindrical metal bar to almost 1000 °C, way above its recrystallisation stage, allowing the metal or alloy product to be easily shaped and formed. The heated billet is passed through a piercing mill to create a hole in the cylinder and the hollow cylinders are then hot-rolled into tubes of the desired sizes, dimensions and wall thicknesses, without any joints and a dense metal structure.

They have high strength, a smooth surface, good ductility, good corrosion resistance, and can easily be machined and welded. They are usually cheaper than cold-drawn tubes and are generally used in mechanical and structural applications requiring a larger diameter, a thicker wall and greater strength.

Cold-drawn seamless tubes are created in a more complex process at room temperature. A solid piece of metal or alloy is cold-drawn seamlessly through dies several times to create a hollow steel tube of exact dimensions, with stress relief and mechanical annealing between drawings.

They are typically used in critical applications requiring great precision, high strength-to-weight ratio, resistance to high pressure, smaller diameters, and enhanced safety, such as hydraulics, heavy construction and manufacturing equipment.

What materials are seamless tubes made of and what are their special properties?

Carbon steel tubes

Carbon steel tubes are made from an alloy of iron and carbon, giving them high tensile strength, to withstand more pressure without becoming brittle or weak. They are highly durable and versatile in many industries, including petroleum, oil and gas, construction, transportation, pipelines, automotive parts, and conveying liquids.

Seamless stainless steel tube

Stainless steel tubes are made from an alloy of iron, carbon, chromium, nickel, and other minerals, giving them exceptional resistance to corrosion and heat. They are extremely durable and versatile and are used in industrial, commercial, and residential applications, such as transporting pressurised liquids, gas, waste and air.

Seamless steel tubes

Seamless steel tubes are most commonly made of mild steel but are supplied as a family of metal alloys that includes carbon steel, and other alloying elements such as chromium, manganese, nickel, and molybdenum.

Available in diameters from 50 mm to 2500 mm, mild steel seamless tubing is strong and durable, making it suitable for use in numerous industries, including construction, petroleum, oil and gas.

Molybdenum seamless tubing

Steel tubes, alloyed with molybdenum, have exceptional strength, hardness, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and resistance to heat, corrosion, oxidation, and wear.

These qualities make them useful in demanding environments requiring superior strength and corrosion resistance at high temperatures, such as nuclear plants, high-temperature furnaces, laboratories, transporting dangerous fluids and gases, and inside electrical elements.

Titanium seamless tubing

Titanium alloy tubes and pipes have an exceptional and high strength-to-weight ratio, tensile strength, corrosion resistance, temperature fluctuations, heat transfer, mechanical efficiency, formability, and low thermal expansion.

They are used extensively in aerospace, aircraft, nuclear power generation, instrumentation, chemical processing, refining, and petrochemical industries.

Nickel seamless tube

The outstanding properties of nickel alloy seamless tubes include high strength, corrosion resistance, durability, formability, pressure resistance, and magnetic properties. They are used extensively in the oil and gas, chemical processing, instrumentation, nuclear power, aerospace, and automotive industries.

Tungsten seamless tubing

Tungsten tubes and pipes have an extremely high melting point, as high as 3410 °C  and their boiling point can reach 5927 °C. This gives them a very high metal density, giving them an exceptional strength-to-weight ratio, elasticity, and electrical and hydraulic conductivity.

Tungsten seamless tubes are ideal for sintering furnaces, heating elements, cathode ray tubes, radiation shields, electronics, and aerospace. It is also a safer option than lead core shielding.

Austenitic seamless tubing

An austenitic stainless steel tube is strong, highly corrosion-resistant, and performs well at high- and low temperatures.

They are commonly used in food processing, construction, and chemical processing.

What are the drawbacks of seamless tubes and pipes?

They are more expensive than welded tubes and the size range is limited.

They require more expensive fittings and are often more difficult to work with.

How do you choose the right seamless tube supplier?

• Find a specialist supplier who either stocks your stock or can source and supply the right high-quality products at the right time for your projects and specific needs, anywhere in the world, without long lead times and delays.
• The right supplier will have expertise, knowledge and extensive experience in the industry, will understand your unique needs and requirements, and can provide you with meaningful product and project advice.
• They will have the ability to customise orders to match your circumstances and requirements.
• They will provide value-added services, with applications such as laser cutting, bending, bevelling, and deburring.
• Verify their reputation, contact network, and ability to provide excellent customer service.

Get in touch

Contact us online, or give us a quick call at +44 [0]161 278 2386 to find out more.