Top Steel Tubing Applications

What Is Steel Tube?

Steel tube is strong, tough and durable. It can be round, square or rectangular. Steel tubing often incorporates different alloys such as aluminum, manganese, titanium and tungsten. Its versatility lends it to a range of applications in different industries. Each year millions of tonnes of steel tubing is produced.

Steel tubing can be welded or seamless. Seamless tubes are made by passing the molten steel over a piercing rod to create a hollow tube. Welded tubes are made from curling a rolling plate and welding the seam together. In the past, seamless tubes were stronger than welded tubes. However advances in technology have allowed welded tubes to have sufficient strength to replace welded tubes for many applications.

Applications For Steel Tube

Steel tubes are widely used in industrial and domestic settings.  In industry, steel tubes are valued for their strength and ability to withstand extremes of temperature, pressure and destructive elements. In domestic settings, steel tubes are used in appliances and gas pipes. If you look behind your refrigerator you’ll likely see some steel tubing.

Top steel tubing applications include:

• Construction and Engineering
• Automobile Manufacturing

Construction and Engineering

The construction and engineering industries use hollow structural sections (HSS). HSS is a form of steel tubing and is commonly circular, square or rectangular. In the UK the term HSS is not used. Instead the basic shapes are named CHS (circular), SHS (square) and RHS (rectangular).

Rectangular HSS are commonly used in welded steel frames which are subjected to loading from different directions. Square and circular HSS are often used as columns.

In construction, metal scaffolding made from steel is the industry standard. As no nuts and bolts are required, assembly is quick and easy. Steel scaffolding can transport workers and heavy equipment with ease.

Automobile Manufacture

The automobile industry has been using steel tubes in ever increasing quantities since the early ‘90s.

Precision steel tubes are used in the internal parts of the vehicle: in the suspension, fuel injection and vehicle control systems.