Precision stainless steel tubes are safe, reliable, hygienic, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective. The development of thinned-walled pipes and new, reliable, and convenient connection methods makes them have more advantages that other pipes cannot replace. Their applications in engineering will become more and more numerous, and their use will become more widespread, with a bright future ahead.
The most obvious difference between precision stainless steel tubes and ordinary stainless steel tubes is their precision. Stainless steel precision pipes are superior to ordinary stainless steel tubes in terms of size, performance, and even surface. So, how does stainless steel achieve surface precision?
The oxide scale is a layer of black and hard substance on the surface of stainless steel tubes during their forming process through welding or high-temperature processing. Precision stainless steel tubes deal with the surface oxide scale through mechanical polishing or acid-pickling passivation. Mechanical polishing handles surface oxidation issues through physical properties, which is simple and quick but may affect the accuracy of the pipe. Acid-pickling passivation treats surface oxidation issues with chemical properties, which has little impact on the preciseness of precision stainless steel tubes. It not only solves oxidation problems but also eliminates other stains and scars on the surface, making it a classic surface oxidation treatment method.
The preferred material for precision stainless steel tubing is generally high-quality raw materials, such as 304 and 316L, which have a surface brightness of 600 mesh. With the increasing requirements for the surface of stainless steel tubes, the surface polishing is divided into several degrees of brightness, such as bright and mirrored. We can use methods such as mechanical polishing, chemical polishing, and electrolytic polishing according to customer requirements to achieve the required surface brightness level. In addition, in order to have a better visual effect, surface polishing can gradually achieve a surface with a pattern effect, which is called wire drawing. Wire drawing generally includes direct wire drawing, circular wire drawing, snowflake wire drawing, nylon wire drawing, and so on.
The traditional coloring process for stainless steel tubes is usually spray painting, spray coating, and electroplating. However, due to the environmental impact of traditional coloring processes and their impact on the precision of stainless steel tubes, precision stainless steel tubes mainly use nano-spray coating technology and vacuum electroplating technology. These two coloring processes have minimal environmental impact and will not affect the preciseness of stainless steel tubes. The surface coloring of stainless steel tubes not only gives them a variety of colors but also enhances their wear resistance and corrosion resistance.
In the building water supply system, although galvanized steel tubes have ended their century-old glory, various new plastic and composite pipes have developed rapidly, but these pipes still have some shortcomings to varying degrees and cannot fully meet the needs of water supply systems and the national requirements for drinking water and water quality. Therefore, experts predict that the era of metal pipes will eventually return to the building water supply industry. According to foreign application experience, thin-walled precision stainless steel tubes are recognized as one of the best pipe materials with the best comprehensive performance among metal pipes.
