How does wall thickness effect the service life of stainless steel pipe fittings?

The wall thickness of the thin-walled stainless steel water pipe is the key to the strength of the pipe connection. If the wall thickness is reduced below the safety factor, the reliability will inevitably fall by several levels. In fact, the wall thickness of the pipeline is an important factor to ensure the connection strength of the pipeline. At the same time, the wall thickness affects the anti-vibration function in various environments, the performance of the pipeline against external impact, and the service life and corrosion resistance in concealed projects. Here we will mainly introduce the relationship between the wall thickness of stainless steel pipe fittings and the connection and its service life.

1. Effect of wall thickness change on quality during production

Pipe fittings go through many processes such as blanking, bending, forming (cold extrusion, bulging) and so on in the production process. The first thing that affects the wall thickness is the process of bending, molding, etc. The different molding process used will have a greater impact on the wall thickness of the pipe.

(1) The influence of the bending on the wall thickness of the pipe fittings. In the process of pipe bending, the shape change is a surface phenomenon of material displacement and plastic deformation. Its essence lies in the elongation and thinning outside the pipe wall and shortening and thickening inside the pipe. The thinning amount of the pipe wall thickness increases as the material hardening index increases. Therefore, in the bending design of the pipe and the selection of the wall thickness of the material, the important factors of the elongation of the pipe and the thinning of the outer side of the bending should be considered, and a reasonable wall thickness should be used, otherwise the thickness of the outer side wall after bending and stretching is difficult to reach the size requirements. At the same time, the size of the bending pipe radius will also have a greater impact on the wall thickness.

(2) The effect of bulging on the wall thickness of pipe fittings. Pipe bulging is formed by expanding the pipe material in the radial direction under pressure. The bulging can complete the local expansion of the pipe blank or the overall expansion of the pipe blank. The bulging process can be divided into: "no axial shrinkage" and "axial shrinkage" deformation methods.

2. The effect of wall thickness on pipe fittings

Pipe fitting clamping connection principle: Make full use of the effective rigidity of stainless steel and the elastic compression ratio principle of the sealing material, and use the clamping tool to press the two sides of the U-shaped groove of the pipe fitting interface to shrink and deform the pipe fitting and the pipe material at the same time, which plays a role of positioning and fixing, achieving the effective connection of stainless steel pipes.

It can be seen that it is connected according to the rigidity of the stainless steel itself, so the wall thickness of the pipe and the pipe fitting plays an important role. If the wall thickness of the pipe and pipe fittings are inconsistent, the rigidity will be different, so that the pressure acceptance will be uneven.

The functions of the pipe fittings are: branching, bending direction, reducing diameter and connecting, which play a relatively important functional role. If the wall thickness of the pipe fitting and the pipe material are inconsistent, the rigidity will be different. Secondly, the wall thickness of the pipe elbow and the U-groove of the pipe are excessively thinned, the quality and function of the product will be reduced.

3. Confirmation and selection of wall thickness.

The function of the pipe fitting is to connect the pipes, so that the pipe can change the direction and diameter. Therefore, in general, pipes and pipe fittings are matched, and the wall thickness requirements are also consistent.