Can you tell us whether you are you responsible for administering all the processes carried out in your oil or gas industry? Then, you must be looking for the most reliable pipes to produce and transport oil and gas. But the question is, how would you differentiate between various variations of stainless-steel pipes? Well, that’s where a customer-driven distributor of carbon, nickel, and stainless-steel products comes in. Once you contact them to learn which grade pipe you should use for a specific purpose, they will give you enough reasons to buy 2205 duplex pipe or type 304 or 316 stainless steel pipes.

With that over, let’s understand what a duplex pipe is and how it gets created.

What is Duplex 2205 Stainless Steel?

Before you buy 2205 duplex pipe, you must know the necessary details about them first. In the simplest terms, you can understand duplex pipes as stainless-steel pipes that consist of a high amount of chromium but a low amount of nickel. The word “Duplex” in this pipe gets its name because it has two different metal grades incorporated in it.

This pipe has a two-phase ferritic and austenitic stainless-steel microstructure, making it a Fe-Ni-Cr (Iron, Nickel, and Chromium) alloy. In this unique structure, the chromium content is nearly 22%, molybdenum 3%, and nickel 5 to 6%. It is the most widely used steel pipe in various industries due to its high yield strength. Just to let you know, the yield strength of 2205 duplex pipe is double that of standard austenitic stainless-steel tubes.

How do Duplex 2205 Stainless Steel pipes get created?

So far, you would have known that duplex tube contains two types of metal – austenitic and ferritic. If you don’t know what austenitic means, we must tell you that it is the presence of a solid solution of carbon or sometimes other solutes in iron that becomes its constituent in some specific conditions. On the other hand, ferritic means the availability of some iron in the metallic materials that becomes part of its chemical composition. Please note that ferritic also refers to a specific type of steel that is widely popular as ferritic steel.

So, the fact of the matter is that manufacturers use austenitic and ferritic metals in duplex pipes because both of them fit the bill for different purposes in distinctive scenarios. However, you should also not forget that both have individual weaknesses that prevent them from getting used in other crucial applications. To help you understand this thing better, we give you a detailed description.

The austenitic has low strength and low resistance to Stress Corrosion Cracking or SCC that is a process of crack emergence from the effects of tensile stress and corrosive factors in a particular environment. On the flip side, ferritic has low strength, poor weldability, and substandard toughness at low temperatures.

Thus, the main aim of combining both these metals is to make a chemical composition that has higher strength, good toughness, good weldability, and, more importantly, high resistance to SCC or Stress Corrosion Cracking. These are some of the primary reasons why you need to buy 2205 duplex pipe for your oil or gas plant.

What are the advantages of 2205 duplex pipe?

1. Strength 

As discussed earlier, the strength of duplex stainless steel is nearly two times more than the strength of regular austenitic or ferritic steel.

2. Cost

You know well that 2205 duplex tubes have high chromium content and lower nickel and molybdenum. It is the main reason this alloy can be lower in cost.

3. Heat resistance

Do you know that duplex pipes have high heat conductivity and low thermal expansion? It means you can use duplex grade tubes at -50 degrees Celsius temperature due to their better ductility property.

4. Corrosion resistance

It’s not new that most stainless steels are corrosion-resistant, depending on the availability of different elements like chromium, molybdenum, and nitrogen. However, when it comes to duplex tubes, they are highly resistant to corrosion, even in chloride and sulfide environments.

5. Toughness and ductility 

Duplex stainless steels are very tough, but they are still lesser than austenitic grade materials and more than ferritic grades.

What are the application cases of 2205 duplex pipe? 

1. Chemical processing, transport, and storage

2. Oil and gas exploration and offshore rigs

3. Oil and gas refining

4. Pollution control equipment

5. Pulp and paper manufacturing

6. Marine environments

7. Chemical process plant

8. Cooling pipes

9. Heat exchangers

10. Mechanical components

Our two-cents 

We hope you have learned three main things through this content – what is duplex 2205 stainless steel, how it gets manufactured, and what are its advantages. So, if you are looking for a trusted vendor to buy 2205 duplex tubes, speak to their representatives or sales staff using any of the widely-used communication methods – call, email, or web forms.

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