What are the Differences between Pipes and Tubes?

When thinking about pipe and tube fabrication, you may think that these two cylindrical structures are pretty much the same. However, this is not true. While these two components are similar in certain ways, they are completely different in other aspects. If you are looking at getting into pipe and tube fabrication, then this is one important difference you need to understand.

How to Differentiate between Pipes and Tubes

So what is the difference between pipes and tubes? Read the two points below to find out.

• Pipes: A pipe is designed to provide transport gases or fluids. Common examples of fluids are water and oil. A pipe is determined by its inside diameter or ID. The ID helps determine the capacity of a pipe in an application. The ID is further determined by the pipe’s thickness or schedule. A pipe schedule and interior diameter differ greatly. For example, if you examined two schedule pipes of 2ʺ and 6ʺ, you would find the schedule of the 2ʺ pipe to be 154ʺ, while the schedule for the 6ʺ pipe would be 0.280ʺ.

• Tubes: While pipes are used to transport fluids or gases, tubes are mainly used as structural pieces to construct different types of machines. Tubes are determined by their outside diameter or OD. According to ASTM, if the OD of a tube is 2ʺ, the accurate measurement would be 2.125ʺ, which is relatively close. Similar to pipes, the thickness of the tube determines its inner diameter. The thickness is referred to as gauge. For example, the wall thickness of 0.083ʺ of a 2ʺ pipe is gauge 14.

Secondary Differences between Pipes and Tubes Apart from these primary differences, there are some other aspects that are taken into consideration:

• Generally, the tolerances of tubes are higher compared to pipes.
• In terms of price, tubes are more expensive to produce than pipes.

These are the basic differences between pipes and tubes. Now you will be in a better position to choose the right structural product for your project. Happy fabricating!

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Tips for Sheet Metal Fabrication Shops to Successfully Run their Business

Sheet metal fabrication shops are involved in the crucial task of forming varied metal components that support the assembly of several products. They employ several critical activities, like shaping, cutting, bending, shrinking, and stretching of sheet metal to produce car bodies, boiler parts, and storage systems, among many others. In short, sheet metal fabrication shops function in highly pressurized environments to meet critical project deadlines and to serve the demands of customers.

Tips for Excellence

Are you a metal fabricator in charge of a sheet metal fabrication shop? Are you finding it bit difficult to manage the activities of your fab shop? If yes, then the following points will be beneficial to you. 

To smoothen the operation of your metal fab shops, you can consider the below mentioned tips:

• Downtime Utilization – Prepare for the future during production downtime! You can make use of this time to organize and modernize your shop. Dispose unnecessary items like metal chips, nuts and bolts. Don’t try to save everything as it will mess up the place and will lead to confusion. Maintain and repair sheet metal fabrication tools, so that they will be ready to perform in the future busy times. You can address all the known problems, and can regulate the work flow during the production downtime.
• Communicate – Effective communication is critical to the success of every business. Let the workers get involved in both formal and informal communication during production downtime. This helps in building relationships and team spirits, which eventually contribute to successful project completion in the future. Efficacious and healthy communication is also important during production. Lack of communication between workers and among departments will upsurge the reworking counts, and in turn will lead to the delivery of substandard products.
• Market Study - Study the market and understand the ongoing trends. Ensure that you are keeping in pace with the technology. Invest in new metal fabrication tools as and when they appear in the market. This is very important to stay competitive in the marketplace constantly.

Update your business strategy and implement innovative changes to play smart in the marketplace. Find out the best way to successfully conduct sheet metal fabrication job consuming lesser time. This will help to make profit-oriented business deals, and stay ahead of competitors even during production downtime.

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