A brief history of steel pipes

We can find traces of steel pipes being used for various purposes in the United States as back as the early s.

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The original version of the now famous pipe was the one factory-made by rolling steel sheets or plates into shape and by flattening the seams. Quite decent solution for that period of time I have to admit. This way of production gradually continued with slight improvements well into the s when pipe wall thickness manipulation technology allowed it to be easily varied to fit the various pressure heads of a mainstream pipeline profile.

Steel pipes have remained being widely used because they are quite durable, can bend without breaking and are pretty shock resistant making them a preferred choice for many uses.

What is a steel pipe?

Well, first things first. Steel pipes are long, hollow tubes that can be used for a wide range of purposes. Although, technology advanced greatly since the introduction of pipes more than 150 years ago, they are generally manufactured by two distinct methods which either result in a welded or a seamless pipe.

Whatever the method used, raw steel is first cast into a more workable or let&#;s put it a more user-friendly starting form. It is then turned into a pipe by stretching the steel out into a seamless tube or forcing the edges and welding them together to form a sealed product.

Steel&#;s properties depend on several factors such as their chemical composition, processes implemented to transform the base metal into the required shape, and by the heat treatment applied. With millions of tons of steel pipe being produced each year, its versatility makes it the most often and widely used product of the steel industry.

How do we do it

Chemical composition

Steel used in construction is a mixture of iron and carbon with varying quantities of other elements&#;principally manganese, phosphorus, sulphur, and silicon. These and some other elements are inevitably present or deliberately added as part of the recipe in various mixtures and ratios aiming to achieve specific characteristics and properties of the finished steel products.

Casting

The traditional steel-making process is done by pouring molten steel into moulds to form castings known as ingots. These ingots are then removed from the moulds, reheated, then rolled into products with square or rectangular cross sections. This is a hot-rolling operation which extends and stretches the ingots and leads to semi-finished products known as blooms, slabs, or billets.

Heat treatment for steels

Various heat treatments can be used to cause steels to react and produce the required characteristics. These heat treatments are generally categorized into slow and rapid cooling treatments, such as (some technical terms coming up fast):

• Annealing
• Normalizing
• Stress relieving
• Quenching and tempering
•  Controlled rolling
• Controlled finishing-temperature rolling

The evolution of steel pipes as we know them today

Thanks to Comenius Whitehouse, a gentleman who developed an improved method for making metal tubes called the butt-weld process, we have the basis for our current pipe-making magic.

Using his method, thin sheets of iron were heated and drawn through a cone-shaped opening. As the metal went through the opening, edges bent and created a pipe shape. Finally, the two ends needed to be welded together with welding electrodes to finish the pipe.

In , an enhanced method got awarded a patent. It basically featured a solid billed cast around a fireproof brick core. When cooled, the brick was removed leaving nothing but a hole in the middle. Afterwards new roller techniques have replaced these methods.

Here is good video showing that method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x1uRR9Jb34

In conclusion, without these pipelines, our way of life would come to a rather unpleasant halt. They are used in many areas, from producing bicycles to gas transportation, electrical conduit and plumbing.

People have used pipes for thousands of years. Perhaps the first use was by ancient agriculturalists who diverted water from streams and rivers into their fields. Archeological evidence suggests that the Chinese used reed pipe for transporting water to desired locations as early as  B.C. Clay tubes that were used by other ancient civilizations have been discovered. During the first century A.D. , the first lead pipes were constructed in Europe. In tropical countries, bamboo tubes were used to transport water. Colonial Americans used wood for a similar purpose. In , the first waterworks was made in Boston using hollow logs.

Link to Hongyuan International

Development of the modern day welded steel pipe can be traced back to the early s. In , William Murdock invented a coal burning lamp system. To fit the entire city of London with these lights, Murdock joined together the barrels from discarded muskets. He used this continuous pipeline to transport the coal gas. When his lighting system proved successful a greater demand was created for long metal tubes. To produce enough tubes to meet this demand, a variety of inventors set to work on developing new pipe making processes.

An early notable method for producing metal tubes quickly and inexpensively was patented by James Russell in . In his method, tubes were created by joining together opposite edges of a flat iron strip. The metal was first heated until it was malleable. Using a drop hammer, the edges folded together and welded. The pipe was finished by passing it through a groove and rolling mill.

Russell's method was not used long because in the next year, Comelius Whitehouse developed a better method for making metal tubes. This process, called the butt-weld process is the basis for our current pipe-making procedures. In his method, thin sheets of iron were heated and drawn through a cone-shaped opening. As the metal went through the opening, its edges curled up and created a pipe shape. The two ends were welded together to finish the pipe. The first manufacturing plant to use this process in the United States was opened in in Philadelphia.

Gradually, improvements were made in the Whitehouse method. One of the most important innovations was introduced by John Moon in . He suggested the continuous process method in which a manufacturing plant could produce pipe in an unending stream. He built machinery for this specific purpose and many pipe manufacturing facilities adopted it.

While the welded tube processes were being developed, a need for seamless metal pipes arouse. Seamless pipes are those which do not have a welded seam. They were first made by drilling a hole through the center of a solid cylinder. This method was developed during the late s. These types of pipes were perfect for bicycle frames because they have thin walls, are lightweight but are strong. In , the first plant to produce seamless tubes was built. As bicycle manufacturing gave way to auto manufacturing, seamless tubes were still needed for gasoline and oil lines. This demand was made even greater as larger oil deposits were found.

As early as , ironworkers could already produce seamless tubes. In one method, a hole was drilled through a solid metal, round billet. The billet was then heated and drawn through a series of dies which elongated it to form a pipe. This method was inefficient because it was difficult to drill the hole in the center. This resulted in an uneven pipe with one side being thicker than the other. In , an improved method was awarded a patent. In this process the solid billed was cast around a fireproof brick core. When it was cooled, the brick was removed leaving a hole in the middle. Since then new roller techniques have replaced these methods.

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