When buying steel tubing, you should consider the overall costs. Ideally, that should cover: How much will it cost to purchase and install each? How about the maintenance requirements for each tubing? The following will be addressing those questions:
Purchasing Costs
Whether you consider buying steel online or from a physical shop, consider the reputation of the supplier. That is the most basic check when planning to buy steel tubing or any steel product. You get the right supplier, and you will never have to worry whether the steel products that you are buying are genuine. They will also not charge you more than the manufacturer’s retail price for the seamless and welded tubing that you are buying.
Additionally, you will enjoy a complete manufacturer’s warranty for your steel tubing. If you are working with a highly reputable supplier, your order will also cover transportation fees. Besides, they will have a detailed return policy that you can follow should the supplied items not meet your order specifications.
However, seamless tubing is costlier than welded tubing because the former uses complex manufacturer processes to create the seamless surfaces. It also has highly polished and corrosion-resistant surfaces. Nonetheless, work with a reputable supplier to get the best quality of either of these two steel tubing options.
Installation Costs
Typically, the installation process of welded tubing is different from that of seamless tubing. The application for welded tubing does not insist much on high pressures and high corrosion resistance. Therefore, you can use any joining method that you will determine to be appropriate for your application. Employees with basic training on joining tubing can do that on welded tubing.
Seamless tubing, however, will require specialized training and experienced personnel because joining seamless tubing must meet the requirements for working pressures for different applications. The joints should be resistant to corrosion from channeled fluids. Therefore, the installation cost of seamless tubing will be higher than that of welded tubing as you will require hiring tubing installation specialists.
Industrial pipework requires a constant inspection to confirm that the pipes are in the best working condition. Typically, defects in the pipework could mean energy losses and reduced working pressure. In extreme cases, the defects can result in pipework bursts, which can cause fatal injuries to workers and destroy the entire pipework system. It is for that reason that tubing manufacturers recommend that you apply proactive instead of reactive maintenance in your industrial tubing system. That is irrespective of whether you are using welded or seamless tubing solutions.
However, the latter will not require as much maintenance as will welded tubing since it follows a strict installation process. The welded sections in welded tubing need constant checking to confirm that it is not leaking or has corroded. Therefore, it is best that you create a maintenance schedule. Your steel products supplier should help you with that. Make sure to inquire about the maintenance schedule that you should follow, even for those steel tubes that you have bought online.
