Seamless steel pipes and welded steel pipes are made through different manufacturing process. Therefore, seamless steel pipes and welded steel pipes have different performance and application scenarios. So what is the difference between seamless steel pipes and welded steel pipes?
1. Different manufacturing process
Seamless steel pipe is made by piercing solid billets or steel ingots, and then processing them through processes such as hot rolling, cold rolling, or cold drawing. During the entire process, there are no welds inside the steel pipe, so the surface is seamless.
Welded steel pipe is made by bending steel plates into tubes shape, and then welding the joints together through welding processes. Such as ERW steel pipes, SSAW steel pipes, etc.
2. Different mechanical properties
Compared with the welded steel pipe, seamless steel pipe has higher high-pressure resistance and strength. Due to the effect from weld seam, the mechanical properties of welded steel pipes is less than seamless steel pipes
3. Different application environments
Seamless steel pipes are usually used for the environments where high-pressure resistance and high-temperature resistance is required, such as boiler tube, heat exchanger, etc. However, welded steel pipe is usually used for low-pressure fluid pipe.
4. Different manufacturing costs and production efficiency
Compared with the seamless steel pipes, due to its simple manufacturing process, welded steel pipe has lower manufacturing costs and higher production efficiency.
In summary, between seamless steel pipes and welded steel pipes shall be selected according to specific application scenarios.
