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Need sourcing help with stainless or aluminum cylinder tubing
5

Need sourcing help with stainless or aluminum cylinder tubing

Need sourcing help with stainless or aluminum cylinder tubing

(OP)
Good Day folks,

I'm looking for a good source in US for either stainless or aluminum dom tubing suitable for use in pneuamtic and hydraulic cylinders.  Have been using c.d.a brass for many years but price and quality becoming a problem. Would like to find a source that supplies OEMs with suitable materials. Wondering where the suppliers are for the likes of Fabco, TRD, Allenaire, etc. Material must be suitable for use in corrosive enviornments, with water in air supplies for pneumatic cylinders being my main concern. Primary sizes used are  3" od X .065 wall and 4" od X .065 wall.   Obviously seamless a must. Can be pre honed, etc. , but can handle that in house as well.    

RE: Need sourcing help with stainless or aluminum cylinder tubing

2
Just a quick tid bit that you might already know.  Aluminum is awfull in wet compressed air service.  I have multiple trashed valve actuators to prove that.   May be ok for low pressure hydraulic.

Regards
StoneCold

RE: Need sourcing help with stainless or aluminum cylinder tubing

(OP)
Thx Stone Cold,

Yes, we recognize raw aluminum does not like water. That's what I'm looking for, the type of aluminum cylinder material that folks like TRD and Fabco use.  Or, obviously stainless steel.  My real problem seems to be the fact that we use 3" and 4" od as opposed to 3" and 4" id which would require a re-engineering of all the cylinder parts we manufacture here.  Have many thousands of units in the field so not really keen on changing design at this stage of the game.

RE: Need sourcing help with stainless or aluminum cylinder tubing

For aluminum, try Alcoa, Hydro and Kaiser.

RE: Need sourcing help with stainless or aluminum cylinder tubing

Google wins.
http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?step=2&id=71
 

Comprehension is not understanding. Understanding is not wisdom. And it is wisdom that gives us the ability to apply what we know, to our real world situations

RE: Need sourcing help with stainless or aluminum cylinder tubing

I think you should reconsider the seamless aspect. I've spent a career with welded and seamless pipe and tube, and I truly believe there is no disadvantage to welded stainless tubing or pipe. In fact, it may be superior because of much better concentricity and surface quality. Weld integrity is simply not a questionable trait. You would find many qualified top quality suppliers.

Michael McGuire
http://stainlesssteelforengineers.blogspot.com/

RE: Need sourcing help with stainless or aluminum cylinder tubing

Second mcguire on welded pipe. Have been dealing with welded
CS pipe for many years. I remember times when we struggled to
Find the weld seam, polish, polish, still not sure :D

RE: Need sourcing help with stainless or aluminum cylinder tubing

For stainless steel tubing produced in North America, Plymouth Tube is probably the best:

http://www.plymouth.com/products/stainless-steel-tubing/


I also concur with Dr. McGuire, welded and cold drawn tubing is superior to seamless tubing in terms of concentricity and surface quality.  In thinwall designs, it can be extremely difficult to even get seamless tubes, due to these problems, among others.

RE: Need sourcing help with stainless or aluminum cylinder tubing

All of the SS cylinder tube that I have ever seen is welded and cold drawn.  and they insist on no hone, only use the as drawn ID surface.
It would take some work for me to reach the 4" size, but 3" is easy enough.  Why do you want the wall so heavy?  We have made a lot with much thinner walls.
Since this material is cold drawn the strength is fairly high, 90ksi min yield is not uncommon.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Plymouth Tube

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