Processing Technology for Stainless Steel Precision Tubes

The processing technology for stainless steel precision tube is relatively complicated and mainly includes the following steps:

1. Raw material preparation

Select high-quality stainless steel billets, usually hot-rolled or cold-rolled stainless steel coils. These billets must undergo strict inspection to ensure that their chemical composition, mechanical properties, etc. meet the processing requirements. The seamless pipe is usually selected as the raw materials for stainless steel precision tubes because their internal structure is uniform and can effectively improve the strength and corrosion resistance of the pipes.

2. Cutting and blanking

According to the design requirements, use plasma cutting, laser cutting or shearing machines and other equipment to cut the billets into the required length. During the cutting process, pay attention to controlling the cutting accuracy to avoid excessive errors. For pipes that require high precision, such as hydraulic tubes, cutting accuracy is particularly important.

3. Cold drawing or cold rolling

This is a key step in the processing of stainless steel precision tubes. Compared with the carbon steel pipe, cold processing of stainless steel precision tubes is more difficult because of their higher material hardness and higher requirements for equipment and processes.

Cold drawing is to use a special cold drawing machine to draw the pipe multiple times at room temperature, so that the diameter of the pipe is gradually reduced and the wall thickness is gradually thinned, thereby improving the precision and surface quality of the pipe. Cold rolling is to roll the pipe on the rolling mill, and the cold processing of the pipe is achieved by adjusting the gap between the rollers and the rolling speed.

4. Heat treatment

In order to improve the mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of stainless steel precision tubes, heat treatment is usually required. Common heat treatment processes include annealing, normalizing, quenching, etc. Annealing can eliminate the processing stress of the pipe and improve the plasticity and toughness of the pipe; normalizing can refine the grains and improve the strength and hardness of the pipe; quenching can improve the hardness and wear resistance of the pipe.

5. Finishing processing

Includes straightening, grinding, polishing and other processes. Straightening can eliminate the bending and deformation of the pipe during the processing process, so that the pipe maintains straightness; grinding and polishing can remove burrs, scratches and other defects on the surface of the pipe, and improve the surface quality and finish of the pipe.

6. Quality inspection

The processed stainless steel precision tube is strictly inspected for quality, including dimensional accuracy, shape accuracy, surface quality, mechanical properties and other aspects. Only tubes that meet the standard requirements can be shipped.

The processing technology of stainless steel precision tube mainly includes the following:

1. Hot rolling process

The steel billet is heated to a high temperature and rolled into a tube of the required shape and size through a rolling mill.

This process has high production efficiency and can obtain tubes with larger diameters, but the accuracy is relatively low.

2. Cold rolling process

It is further processed on the basis of hot-rolled tubes. The hot-rolled tubes are pickled, annealed and then subjected to multiple cold rolling processes to significantly improve the dimensional accuracy and surface quality of the tubes.

The cold rolling process can produce thinner and more precise stainless steel precision tubes, but the processing cost is high.

3. Cold drawing process

The solid bar or hollow tube is pulled out of the mold through a special tube drawing equipment to reduce its diameter and increase its length.

The cold drawing process can obtain high-precision tubes with good surface quality, but the raw material quality requirements of the pipes are high.

4. Welding process

For some stainless steel precision tubes with long lengths or special shapes, welding process can be used. Common welding methods include argon arc welding, laser welding, etc.

The welding process requires strict control of welding parameters to ensure the quality and sealing of the weld of the welded pipe.

5. Surface treatment process

In order to improve the corrosion resistance and aesthetics of stainless steel precision tubes, surface treatment is usually required. Common surface treatment processes include polishing, wire drawing, sand blasting, etc.

Polishing can make the surface of the pipe smooth as a mirror; wire drawing can form fine lines on the surface; sand blasting can remove the oxide layer on the surface and increase the surface roughness.

Summary

In short, the processing technology of stainless steel precision tubes requires fine processing and strict control of multiple processes to ensure that the quality and performance of the pipes meet the requirements. Different processing technologies and equipment selections will affect the processing efficiency and quality of the pipes, so in actual production, reasonable selection and optimization are required according to specific circumstances. The processing techniques of stainless steel precision tubes have their own characteristics. In actual production, according to different needs and product requirements, appropriate processing techniques will be selected or multiple techniques will be combined to produce high-quality stainless steel precision tubes.