What is Nominal Pipe Size and Actual Pipe Size

A. Nominal Pipe size: It is the nominal size specified in standards such as ASME B36.10m and ASME B36.19m. It is the ideal size that users and manufacturers hope to obtain, and it is also the order size specified in the contract.

B. Actual Pipe size: It is the actual size obtained during the production process. This size is often larger or smaller than the nominal size. The phenomenon of being larger or smaller than the nominal size is called deviation.

European Standard

European stainless steel tube & pipe standards specify 4 classes outer diameter and wall thickness in percentage or absolute value on the basis of nominal dimension.

Generally, larger diameter or heavy wall thickness stainless steel pipe use percentage, small diameter or thin wall thickness stainless steel tube use absolute value.

European Standard

European stainless steel tube & pipe standards specify 4 classes outer diameter and wall thickness in percentage or absolute value on the basis of nominal dimension.

Generally, larger diameter or heavy wall thickness stainless steel pipe use percentage, small diameter or thin wall thickness stainless steel tube use absolute value.

From D1 to D4 class for outer diameter, and T1 to T4 for wall thickness tolerance comply to DIN EN ISO 1127 standard, stainless steel tubes – Dimensions, tolerances and conventional masses per unit length.

The tolerances on outside diameter and thickness from above table, greater value shall be selected.

EN 10312 has specific values in table series 1 and series 2.

America Standard

America standard has two standard rules to specify outside diameter and thickness, ASTM A999 / A999M and A1016 / A1016M.

But A511 for seamless stainless steel mechanical tubing and A554 welded stainless steel mechanical tubing not conform to above standards, they have separate outside diameter and thickness tolerances.

American standard outside diameter tolerance mainly used to represent the absolute value, over and below tolerances are often asymmetric, SS tube and pipe in American standard average tolerance can reach even higher than D4 class in EN ISO 1127 standard.

Wall thickness tolerance should be +/-10%t or better, and average thickness tolerance should be ( +/-20 – 22%t, 0 ), pipeline pipe has a larger tolerance, hot finished seamless pipe largest.

China Standards

China has more quantity standards compared to European standards, but less than american standards, SS tube and pipe standards are similar with EU standards in system, and absorb favorable experience in USA specifications.

Standard Comparison

Stainless steel tube & pipe wall thickness tolerance are the same as the general accuracy of American ASTM / ASME and EU standards, but slightly lower than the high requirements of the EU standards.

Stainless steel tube & pipe outer diameter tolerances are mostly lower than American standards, and approaching the EU standards. it is more reasonable that the American standard specify the OD tolerance is tight, compared to thickness tolerance.

China GB standards and EU standard have no weight tolerance specified, seamless tube & pipe in GB standard delivery goods as actual weight or theoretical weight, welded tube & pipe as theoretical weight or actual weight.

Out Of Roundness

Out of roundness, sometimes referred to as ovality is tube or pipe on the same cross-section of the outer diameter, roundness or ovality is difference between the maximum and minimum dimensions of outside diameter, is carefully measured the high and low points at any one section of the tube or pipe.

Eccentricity

Concentricity or eccentricity refers to tube & pipe wall thickness variations, if need a high precision in tube tolerance, or fit into other tube or parts, which need a good concentricity.

Concentricity be contained wall thickness tolerance specified in EU standard, and just specified in ASTM A1016/M OD≥50 mm and t≥5.6 mm thick wall stainless steel tube the same cross section thickness varieties.

For seamless tube,

WTmax – WTmin ≤ ±10% (WTmax + WTmin) / 2

For welded tube,

WTmax – WTmin ≤ 5% (WTmax + WTmin) / 2

Straightness

Standard pipes and tubes are supplied straightened to the eye: for special applications the permissible deviation from the straight line may be agreed between purchaser and tube manufacturer; the maximum permissible deviation from the straight line related to the length of measurement L is to be indicated, e.g. 1mm/1000mm.

For example

Take the structural stainless steel pipe standard as:

The yield rate of production of fixed-length pipes is much lower than that of normal-length pipes, and it is reasonable for manufacturers to request price increases. The rate of price increase varies from company to company. Generally, the price increase is about 10% on the basis of the base price.

C. Length of double ruler: The length of the double ruler should be within the usual length. The contract should indicate the length of the single ruler and the multiples of the total length (for example, 3000mm×3, which is 3 multiples of 3000mm, and the total length is 9000mm). In actual operation, the allowable positive deviation of 20mm should be added to the total length, plus a margin for the incision of each single ruler length. Take the structural pipe as an example, the allowance for cutting is stipulated: 5-10mm for outer diameter ≤159mm; 10-15mm for outer diameter >159mm.

If there is no double-length deviation and cutting allowance in the standard, it should be negotiated by the supplier and the buyer and indicated in the contract. The double-length scale is the same as the fixed-length length, which will bring about a substantial reduction in the yield rate of the manufacturer. Therefore, it is reasonable for the manufacturer to raise the price, and the price increase is basically the same as the fixed-length length.

D. Range length: The range length of the stainless steel pipe is within the usual length range. When the user requires a fixed range length, it must be indicated in the contract.

For example: Usually the length is 3000-12000mm, and the range cut-to-length length is 6000-8000mm or 8000-10000mm.

It can be seen that the range length is looser than the fixed-length and double-length length, but it is much stricter than the usual length, which will also reduce the yield of production enterprises. Therefore, it is reasonable for the manufacturer to raise the price, and the price increase is generally about 4% above the base price.

Steel pipe delivery status(condition)

Steel pipe delivery status(condition): cold / hard (BK), cold / soft (BKW), after cold stress relief annealing (BKS), annealing (GBK), normalized (NBK).

Condition on delivery of steel pipe

General Information

The general cold strip mills, volume should go through continuous annealing (CAPL unit) to eliminate cold hardening and rolling stress, or batch annealing reach the mechanical properties of the corresponding standard specifies. Cold rolled steel surface quality, appearance, dimensional accuracy better than hot-rolled plate, and right-rolled thin product thickness is about 0.18mm, so the majority of users favor.

Cold rolled steel coil substrate products deep processing of high value-added products. Such as electro-galvanized, hot dip galvanized, electro-galvanized fingerprint resistant, painted steel roll damping composite steel, PVC laminating steel plates, etc., so that the excellent quality of these products has a beautiful, high resistance to corrosion, has been widely used.

Cold rolled steel coil finishing after annealing, cut the head, tail, trimming, flattening, smooth, heavy volume, or longitudinal clipboard. Cold-rolled products are widely used in automobile manufacturing, household electrical appliances, instruments, switches, buildings, office furniture and other industries. Steel plate strapping package weight of 3 to 5 tons. Flat sub-volume typically 3 to 10 tons / volume. Coil diameter 6m.

Packing

Bare packing/bundle packing/crate packing/wooden protection at the both sides of tubes and suitably protected for sea-worthly delivery or as requested.

There are probably hundreds of different methods for packing a pipe, and most of them have merit, but there are two principles that are vital for any method to work prevent rusting and Sea transportation security.

• Plastic caps plugged at the two sides of pipe ends
• Should be avoided by the steel strapping and transport damage
• Bundled signs should be uniform and consistent
• The same bundle(batch) of steel pipe should be came from the same furnace.
• The steel pipe has the same furnace number, the same steel grade, the same specifications.

Our packing can meet any needs of the customers.

Alloying Elements

Commonly used alloying elements and their effects are listed in the table given below.