Welded Tubes Vs. Seamless Tubes – What’s the Difference?

Seamless Tubes

 
A seamless tube, also known as a seamless pipe, is a tube/pipe with no welding seam. It is made of a single piece of metal without any joins. Each end of this tube is connected to another tube without any welding joint. The ends have threads that help in forming a connection with other tubes.

Seamless tubes are made from a solid cylindrical piece of alloys or metals such as stainless steel, tungsten, carbon steel, etc. known as billets. These billets are heated, pierced through the center, and rolled over a form until they take the shape of a hollow tube. The wall thickness of the tube is usually specified as per the requirements of the customers.

Major suppliers of these billets are from Venezuela, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Oman.

The industries where safety requirements are very high, tend to use seamless tubes. Because these tubes have better pressure capacity, strength is higher as compared to welded tubes.

The seamless tube is a hollow cross-section pipe with no seams. Usually, the maximum diameter of a seamless tube is 650mm and the minimum is 0.3mm. The thickness of the wall depends on the usage.

As there are no joints in a seamless tube, the working pressure can remain much higher as compared to the welded tubes of same size where same material is used. Seamless tubes prevent the probability of flaw and differences in malleability as it does not have any joints. These concerns are usually associated with the welded areas in welded tubes. Moreover, in seamless tubes, it is not required to test the weld strength. Therefore, these are more appropriate for significant and crucial applications.

Welded Tubes

Welded tubes are steel pipes made from long, coiled steel plates. These plates are cut into particular lengths that give flat rectangular sheets.

The rectangular sheets are converted into cylindrical shape tubes with the help of rolling machines. These machines work on a high-frequency electrical current that helps the sheets to melt and fuse together. In other words, the rolling application is the process that forges the welded seam or joint. The best part of this process is that no welds are visible in the finished product. And because of these joints, welded tubes are manufactured in long continuous lengths.

The welded sections are inhomogeneous that results in malleability, greater dimensional variation, and less corrosion-resistant feature. Therefore, drawing the tubes is required here. It reduces these deviations. It is a process where a tube is passed through a die.

The production process of welded tubes is simple with a variety of specifications. However, the strength of the tubes is comparatively lower than that of seamless tubes. As less drawing and strengthening is required in the process, the manufacturing cost also comes down.

What is the difference between a seamless tube and a welded tube!

 
Anand Seamless Ltd. is a leading manufacturer and exporter of various types of cold drawn seamless tubes, heat exchanger tubes, and finned tubes. We offer flexibility in terms of specifications and ensure that the product reaches our clients on time.

If you are looking to purchase high-quality seamless tubes at affordable rates, please call us at +91-9099996851. We’ll be happy to guide you!