Despite their apparent simplicity, tubing and fittings are complex, precision items requiring careful handling and experienced personnel. Choosing instrumentation tubes that suit your needs works best if you consult with the steel fabrication industry.
Know that we at Steelmor are here for you – don’t do this stuff alone!
Defining Instrumentation Tubing
Instrumentation tubes provide secure connections for various systems, such as flow monitors, pressure switches, and valves. The reliability, integrity, and safety of the instrumentation tubing are crucial, even more so when harsh media, corrosive or hazardous environments have to be factored in.
In extremely demanding environments, such as the nuclear power industry, reliability and durability are paramount. Reactor cores depend heavily on instrumentation tubing for monitoring temperature, pressure, fuel burn-up rates and density differences.
No system integrity is complete without instrumentation tubing. Not only is tubing supplying the link or bridge for system function, but they need to be compatible with the rest of the components. You don’t want to leave a thing to guesswork; choosing instrumentation tubing is an exact science.
Industries Customarily Choosing Instrumentation Tubing
- Military
- Aviation
- Hydraulics
- Automotive
- Oil and gas
- Impulse lines
- Power generation
- Chemical inhibition
- Chemical and petrochemical
- Process instrumentation and sensing
Choosing Steel Instrumentation Tubing
Mild or stainless steel, aluminium or copper have good machinability and offer the best overall corrosion resistance, which is why they are selected for tubing applications.
Your choice of tubing is dependent on the application and the required lifespan. It is important that you weigh all the criteria before making your decision.
It is important to be careful when selecting polished tubing as the polishing process can work harden it and increase its surface hardness to unacceptable levels. Therefore, by choosing dull annealed tubing, you can be sure that no untoward heat treatment has occurred.
Steel is a durable and strong metal with high resistance to heat. It is used as a tubing material for both commercial and industrial applications for both fluid transport and structural applications.
Galvanized steel has a zinc coating to prevent rust and chemical corrosion.
Carbon steel provides increased strength and durability due to its high carbon content.
Stainless Steel is a relatively strong metal with excellent chemical and corrosion resistance, which makes it ideal for sanitary applications and applications that handle aggressive fluids and substances.
Your Choice Counts
Take your time choosing instrumentation tubing – that is the big takeaway here.
Your decision is mission-critical for providing a consistently high level of reliability in a wide variety of sensitive applications. The wrong choice can blow your project right out of the water.
Steelmor is a leading manufacturer and supplier of instrumentation tubing. We stock metric and Imperial sizes – 6mm to 16mm, and 1/8” to 1” – and all wall thicknesses are available. Contact us today to talk about your specific requirements.
