Advantages and disadvantages of mechanical tubes

What is a mechanical tube?

Mechanical tube & tubing, also commonly known as seamless tube in the industry, is a long steel strip with a hollow cross-section and no seams around it. This name mainly comes from its production process and product characteristics, that is, the steel tube is rolled or drawn as a whole without welds, thus ensuring the continuity and strength of the pipeline.

Seamless mechanical tubes have excellent mechanical properties and processing properties and are widely used in industrial fields such as petroleum, chemical, medical, food, light industry, and mechanical instruments. The material of seamless steel tubes is generally ordinary carbon structural steel, high-quality carbon structural steel or low-alloy structural steel, etc. Different materials and specifications can be selected according to different uses. Let's mainly discuss the advantages and disadvantages of mechanical tubes:

‌Advantages of mechanical tubes‌:

‌1. High strength and high pressure resistance‌
Mechanical tubes are manufactured through special cold rolling and cold drawing processes, with high strength and toughness, strong pressure resistance, and can withstand large external pressure. They are suitable for various high-pressure environments and heavy-load applications‌.
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2. Easy installation and low cost‌

The installation process of mechanical tubes is relatively simple, which reduces the construction difficulty and cost and is suitable for large-scale applications. ‌

‌3. Long service life‌

Due to the high quality and durability of mechanical tubes, their service life is relatively long, reducing the frequency of replacement and maintenance. ‌

‌4. High precision and small error‌

The precision of machined tubes is high and the error is small, which can meet the requirements of highly precise applications. Its inner and outer diameters, wall thickness and surface finish can be controlled within a very wide range, which can ensure the stable operation and long-term use of the equipment. ‌

5. Good rigidity and not easy to deform‌

The rigidity of machined tubes is good, not easy to deform and bend, which ensures the stability and reliability of the equipment. ‌

6. Good surface quality and corrosion resistance‌

The surface of the mechanical tube is precisely processed and polished, with excellent surface finish and smoothness. This not only helps to reduce flow resistance and improve heat transfer efficiency, but also helps to improve the corrosion resistance and fatigue resistance of the material, and can extend the service life. ‌

7. Superior processing performance
The processing performance of mechanical tubes is good, and it is easy to perform processing operations such as cutting, welding, and drilling. This makes mechanical tubes easier to process and install in various applications.

8. Multiple material options
Mechanical tubes can be manufactured using a variety of materials, including stainless steel, alloy steel, carbon steel, copper, and aluminum. This means that materials suitable for specific applications can be selected to meet different needs.

‌Disadvantages of mechanical tubes‌:

‌1. High manufacturing cost‌
The manufacturing process of mechanical tubes is complex and has high requirements for production equipment. In particular, mechanical precision tubes require multiple processes, including raw material selection, rolling or cold drawing, heat treatment, and surface treatment. These processes require not only high-quality raw materials, but also precise control of each link, resulting in high production costs and correspondingly high market prices, which increases the procurement costs of enterprises. And it is not suitable for the production of larger diameter pipes. ‌

2. ‌High processing difficulty‌

The processing process of mechanical precision tubes requires precise control of various parameters to ensure the accuracy and quality of the product. For example, parameters such as temperature and pressure need to be strictly controlled during the cold drawing process to ensure the size and surface quality of the tube. This increases the difficulty and complexity of processing.

3. Poor welding performance
The welding performance of some mechanical tubes (such as 65Mn precision mechanical tubes) is relatively poor, which may cause inconvenience in some occasions where welding is required.

4. Defect problems
During the production process, mechanical precision tubes may have problems such as dimensional deviation, surface defects, internal defects and shape defects. These problems will affect the quality and performance of the pipes and need to be avoided through strict quality control and testing.

Problems that are easy to encounter during use:

1. High requirements for pipeline layout
In the actual use of engineering machinery, the pipeline layout requirements of mechanical pipes are high. Once the pipeline layout is unreasonable, it is very easy to cause oil seepage, oil leakage and other problems. As a key part of the hydraulic power transmission of engineering machinery, the hydraulic pipeline system is like the blood of the entire machine, and its stability is crucial.

2. Design is easily overlooked
In the design of hydraulic systems for engineering machinery, mechanical pipes are often overlooked as accessories. Designers often pay more attention to the selection and design of core components such as hydraulic pumps, hydraulic valves, and hydraulic cylinders, and pay less attention to mechanical pipes. However, as an important channel connecting various components in the hydraulic system, the rationality of the mechanical tube design directly affects the performance and reliability of the entire system.

3. Limited application scenarios 

Although mechanical tubes are widely used in many fields, their high cost and specific application requirements make precision tubes not the best choice in some cost-sensitive or low-process occasions.

Main uses of mechanical tubes:

Because mechanical tubes (seamless mechanical tubes) have high strength, high pressure resistance and good plastic deformation ability, they are widely used in various occasions that need to withstand high pressure and complex loads. For example, in the petroleum industry, seamless steel pipes are used as oil pipes and casing pipes to withstand the huge pressure of underground oil and gas; in the chemical industry, seamless steel pipes are used to transport various corrosive media; in the medical field, seamless steel pipes are used to manufacture medical devices and surgical instruments.

Compared with ordinary steel pipes, the main advantage of seamless mechanical tubes is their seamless structural design. This design makes the steel pipe more uniform when subjected to pressure and load, avoiding problems such as stress concentration and fatigue fracture that may occur at the weld. In addition, the manufacturing process of seamless steel pipes is also more sophisticated, which can ensure the dimensional accuracy and surface quality of the products and meet various high-precision and high-demand application scenarios.

Conclusion:

Mechanical pipes are widely used in the fields of automobiles, aerospace, chemicals, medical equipment, etc. due to their advantages such as high precision, high strength, excellent surface quality and a variety of material options. It can meet high-demand engineering projects, provide reliable performance and long life, and help improve product quality and production efficiency.

Read more: Mechanical Tubing vs. Structural Tubing or ASTM A519 Seamless Mechanical Tube