The Heat Is On: The Advantages Of Using Induction Bending Services To Bend Stainless Steel Piping
Posted on: 10 July 2017
Stainless steel is a truly remarkable material, combining all the strength and durability of regular steel with resistance to rust and corrosion; this makes it a perfect material for piping, and stainless steel piping is used by a wide variety of commercial and industrial operations.
However, one of stainless steel's few disadvantages is that it can be difficult to work with. For example, welding stainless steel is quite difficult and requires special equipment and experience. This can make fitting elbow joints and other bends to your stainless steel piping systems a challenging prospect, so having your pipes professionally bent to the shapes and angles you require can be far more efficient.
If you choose to have your stainless steel pipes bent, you will have a number of different bending methods available to you. However, induction bending is one of the very best ways to have stainless steel piping bent and can have numerous advantages over other, less sophisticated bending methods.
What are the advantages of having stainless steel pipe bent with induction bending?
Minimal loss of strength: During the induction bending process, the section of pipe to be bent is first heated to enormous temperatures using electrical resistance generators. This makes the stainless steel highly malleable and easily bent and prevents the walls of the pipe from thinning dramatically (and thereby losing strength) during the bending process.
High turnover: The process of induction bending is efficiently controlled by computerised systems, which allows even large stainless steel pipes to be bent into shape relatively quickly. This makes for high turnover rates, and induction bending services can rapidly supply you with all the bent stainless steel piping you will need.
Precision: Because induction bending machines are computer controlled, they can work to a level of precision far beyond human capabilities. As such, induction-bent pipe can always be relied upon to be exactly the size, shape and angle you require, without any post-bending modification being necessary.
No imperfections: Choosing to have your piping bent with induction bending virtually eliminates the possibility of air bubbles, hairline cracks and other points of weakness forming in the walls and joints of your pipe. This makes bends achieved with induction methods far less likely to fail than welded or cold-bent piping, and is a particularly pressing concern for industries that require piping capable of withstanding high internal pressures (such as power plants and gas pipelines).
Inexpensive: Induction pipe bending is an involved process requiring some specialised equipment — despite this, it can be significantly cheaper to have your pipes bent via induction methods than by less sophisticated methods. This is chiefly due to the high rate of turnover induction bending machines offer, but induction bending also avoids the need for sand filling, mandrel fitting and other complicated processes required to bend piping while 'cold'.
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