Pipes and tubes are the lifelines of many projects in various industrial verticals apart from domestic and commercial uses. Steel is one of the basic alloys to make pipes and tubes to carry various fluids and gases in residential, commercial and industrial units. Steel pipes are available in the seamless and welded form to have no seams for the free flow of liquids without any issues. ERW or electric resistance welded tubes are the best form of welded tubes to be cost-effective solutions than seamless tubes with many benefits and applications. It is the reason that the ERW tubes market is to grow at a CAGR of 5.2% from 71.9 to 119.4 million dollars from 2023 to 2033.
This article will discuss electric resistance welded tubes, including advantages over seamless tubes and the many benefits and applications.
What are ERW tubes?
The demand for pipes and tubes for agriculture, water, gas, irrigation, casing, fencing, scaffolding and others needed cost-effective tube solutions. But it should be with the high quality of seamless tubes but only costing less for the huge need. Here, the ERW or electric resistance welded tubes come in handy as they cost less but have high strength. The welding uses heat and pressure to join the steel sheet giving it easy and lightweight to work with tubing for many applications. Hence ERW tubes are the intermediary between the seamless and welded tubes to be smoother and consistent in surface texture without any obvious welded seams. Also, ERW tubes are easy to weld, drill, cut to size, weld, and others, be more durable, versatile and with other advantages.
How are ERW tubes made?
Steel pipes are the most common type of pipes and tubes useful in many applications. ERW tubes is one of the steel tubes with sharp steel edges welded and melted to form a consistent cylindrical shape. Electric resistance welded tubes are formed by pulling through a series of rollers to form tubes fusing through electric charges. Until 1970 only low-frequency AC was used to heat the edges and changed to high-frequency AC for higher-quality welding processes. Steel strips form cylindrical shapes and are welded together to form ERW Tubes by applying pressure and electric current to the steel to fuse edges. The experienced manufacturer makes ERW tubes of high quality in various sizes, thicknesses, etc., as per the customers' specific requirements.
Benefits of the electric resistance welded tubes
Electric resistance steel tubes made by longitudinal welding of steel coils have many advantages over seamless steel tubes and others. The significant difference between the two is the manufacturing process, as seamless tubes need to roll the entire metal piece, and ERW needs only welding along the seam. Hence ERW is less expensive than seamless alternatives without any quality deficit, as both are robust, durable and reliable. There are also many other benefits of electric resistance welded tubes, including the following.
- The significant benefit is the cost-effectiveness of most of the other tubes without any deficit in quality.
- Easier to manufacture in large quantities than other tubes to be a popular choice for bulk buyers
- Have higher strength and durability because of being made of high-quality steel, to also have high resistance to corrosion
- Have high versatility to be useful in various applications from construction to petrochemicals, etc
- Have high dimensional accuracy for ensuring precise shaping and sizing of the tubes to result in uniform dimensions to be suitable for applications needing tight tolerances
- Readily available in many sizes to be useful for diverse applications with smooth surface finish
What are the applications of ERW tubes?
- Construction industry to transport water and drainage along with structural pipelines to support columns
- Oil & gas industry to transport oil and gas from drilling sites to refineries in both onshore and offshore applications
- The automotive industry makes bicycles, automobiles and other vehicles for making frames, exhaust systems, suspension components, etc.
- Agriculture industry for irrigation systems, fencing, greenhouse construction, etc
- Mining industry for transporting equipment, material for making conveyors, pipelines, structural support components, etc.
Caparo India, with 3000 MT precision carbon steel ERW tube production capacity, has over 540 workforces in a 73,608 sq. ft area and is India's leading manufacturer of electric resistance welded tubes.
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