ASTM B163 / ASME SB-163 / ASTM B729 / ASTM B622
Nickel alloy seamless tubes in five grades are manufactured by Thaida Stainless Steel Manufacturing (Thailand) Co., Ltd. at our Ban Bueng, Chonburi plant in Thailand and quoted from our Bang Phli, Samut Prakan office. Commercially pure nickel (Nickel 200 and low-carbon Nickel 201) goes into caustic evaporators and heat exchangers, while three iron-bearing nickel alloys, Alloy 20, Alloy 31 and UNS N08120, take acid, chloride and furnace work. A phosphoric acid evaporator is typically specified as UNS N08031 seamless tube or seamless WNR 1.4562 tube.
Nickel Alloy seamless tubeASTM B163 / ASME SB-163 / ASTM B729
EN 10204 3.1 certificate / 3.2 on request
Three things hold for every grade: tube is sized by outside diameter and wall, each length passes a pressure or electric test, and one certificate format records the results. Standard, delivery condition, lot tests, size envelope and maximum length move with the grade, as the rows below show.
Two tube routes run through the range, and the duty of each item decides which one it follows.
Condenser and heat-exchanger tube in Nickel 200 and Nickel 201 follows ASTM B163, Standard Specification for Seamless Nickel and Nickel Alloy Condenser and Heat-Exchanger Tubes, with ASME SB-163 as its Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code counterpart. B163 is written for this duty: it prints its own tolerance table, cut-length rule, lot definition and bundle marking, and it adds a flare test. ASTM B161, the standard for nickel seamless pipe and tube, covers seamless tube in these two grades as well.
Tube in Alloy 20, Alloy 31 and UNS N08120 follows standards written for pipe and tube alike. ASTM B729 covers UNS N08020 for general corrosive service and is quoted without an ASME number. ASTM B622 / ASME SB-622 covers UNS N08031 in the solution annealed and descaled condition. ASTM B407 / ASME SB-407 covers UNS N08120 and places it among the alloys used where creep and rupture resistance is required.
ASTM B829, Standard Specification for General Requirements for Nickel and Nickel Alloys Seamless Pipe and Tube, sits behind all five product standards. For tube in Alloy 20 and Alloy 31 it supplies the lot definition, the cold-worked permitted variations, the length rule and the marking, and for every grade it sets out how the electric test is run. B163 and B407 print their own tolerance tables, and wherever a product standard has its own clause, that clause governs.
Every seamless nickel alloy tube receives a hydrostatic test or a nondestructive electric test, eddy current or ultrasonic, and under B163, B729 and B407 the order may name which one. Each lot then gets a chemical analysis and a tension test; lots of Nickel 200 and 201 add the flare test, and lots of UNS N08120 add a grain-size test. Results are recorded on an EN 10204 3.1 (3.2 on request) certificate, and third-party inspection is available on request.
The grades divide by duty more than by chemistry alone: two serve caustic heat transfer, two serve acid and chloride exchangers, and one serves fired equipment. Each grade has its own tube page with chemistry, strength minimums and tolerance bands.
Nickel 200 is commercially pure nickel, used as seamless pure nickel tube for caustic soda duty. Ordered as ASTM B163 nickel seamless tube, it comes annealed, stress-relieved, or stress-relieved with annealed ends, and every lot is flare tested. Strength and tolerance data for UNS N02200 seamless tube are on Nickel 200 seamless tubes.
Nickel 201 is the low-carbon version of Nickel 200 and follows the same tube standard, conditions and flare test. Only its carbon limit differs chemically, and its strength minimums are lower in each condition. Europe lists it as seamless WNR 2.4068 tube; data for UNS N02201 seamless tube are on Nickel 201 seamless tubes.
Copper and molybdenum give Alloy 20, a niobium-stabilized nickel-iron-chromium-molybdenum-copper alloy, its resistance to sulfuric acid and to pitting and crevice attack. ASTM B729 requires the stabilized-annealed condition, and European drawings show the grade as seamless WNR 2.4660 tube. Tests and tolerances for UNS N08020 seamless tube are on Nickel Alloy 20 seamless tubes.
Alloy 31 adds nitrogen to a low-carbon nickel-iron-chromium-molybdenum-copper chemistry and is supplied to ASTM B622 / ASME SB-622, solution annealed and descaled. Exchangers and evaporators in phosphoric acid and chloride-bearing media use it for pitting and crevice resistance. It has the narrowest envelope; see Alloy 31 seamless tubes for UNS N08031 seamless tube data.
UNS N08120 is a nickel-iron-chromium alloy with niobium, tungsten and nitrogen, made to ASTM B407 / ASME SB-407 as hot-finished annealed or cold-worked annealed tube. B407 requires a minimum final heat-treatment temperature and controlled grain size, and the alloy resists oxidation and carburization. See Nickel Alloy UNS N08120 seamless tubes for seamless WNR 2.4854 tube.
Every one of our nickel alloy seamless tubes is ordered by outside diameter, wall and length rather than by nominal pipe size and schedule. Tube in Nickel 200, Nickel 201, Alloy 20 and UNS N08120 runs from 6 to 457 mm outside diameter with walls of 1 to 65 mm. The Alloy 31 grade, seamless WNR 1.4562 tube, is made from 6 to 219 mm with walls of 0.5 to 20 mm. Maximum length also depends on grade: up to 22 m for Nickel 200, Nickel 201 and Alloy 20, and up to 18 m for Alloy 31 and UNS N08120.
Permitted variations on diameter and wall come from three sources. ASTM B163 prints bands for the smaller exchanger diameters in Nickel 200 and 201, ASTM B407 prints separate bands for cold-finished and hot-finished tube in UNS N08120, and cold-worked tube in Alloy 20 and Alloy 31 is held to the cold-worked table of ASTM B829. Lines sized by NPS and schedule go to our nickel alloy seamless pipes.
Most of the range carries heat between process streams, while one grade works on the fired side of the plant.
Final-effect evaporator tubes in chlor-alkali plants and heat exchangers handling strong caustics run in UNS N02201 seamless tube, the low-carbon grade, or in seamless WNR 2.4066 tube for caustic soda and other alkalies.
Condensers and steam generators in power plants use UNS N02200 seamless tube, while feedwater heaters, condensers and chemical dosing lines are also built from UNS N08020 seamless tube.
Acid coolers in sulfuric acid plants, condensers in alkylation units and heat exchangers on pickling lines use seamless WNR 2.4660 tube, with copper supporting its resistance to sulfuric acid.
Heat exchangers and evaporators in wet-process phosphoric acid plants, sulfuric acid concentration units and flue gas desulfurization recirculation lines are tubed in Alloy 31 for pitting and crevice resistance.
Desalination heat exchangers and condensers in seamless WNR 2.4066 tube, seawater cooling systems and brine heaters in Alloy 20, and offshore heat exchangers in Alloy 31 cover the marine side of the range.
Steam-cracker radiant and convection tubes, heat-treatment furnace radiant tubes, boiler superheaters and reheaters, and waste incineration superheater tubes use UNS N08120 seamless tube, also listed as seamless WNR 2.4854 tube.
Packing
Straight tubes bundled by grade, heat and size, with thin-wall and small-diameter items boxed in timber to keep them straight.
Marking
Nickel 200 and 201 bundles carry the ASTM B163 container marking with material name, condition, specification number, size, weights and order number; tubes in the other grades carry the maker's name or brand, UNS number, the letters ASTM, specification number, heat number and size, with small pieces tagged per bundle.
End protection
Both ends of every tube capped to keep the bore clean in transit.
Documents
A packing list with heat numbers, piece counts and net and gross weights travels with the certificate.
Terms
FOB, CFR or CIF, fixed in the order confirmation.
Destinations
By road within Thailand and by sea to Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and India.
Tube in all five grades is made and tested at our plant, 154 Moo.1 Map Phai, Ban Bueng, Chonburi 20170, Thailand. Offers, order confirmations and certificates are issued from our office at 89/18 Moo.15 Enterprize Park, Bangna-Trad Road, Bang Kaeo, Bang Phli, Samut Prakan 10540, Thailand. A retubing list that mixes exchanger tubes in Nickel 200 with evaporator tubes in Alloy 31 is answered in one offer of nickel alloy seamless tubes, with the standard named against each item.
For Nickel 200 or Nickel 201, ASTM B163 / ASME SB-163, the standard written for condenser and heat-exchanger tubes. Quote the item as ASTM B163 nickel seamless tube with its UNS number and its condition: annealed, stress-relieved, or stress-relieved with annealed ends. A condenser tubed in Alloy 20, Alloy 31 or UNS N08120 is ordered to B729, B622 or B407 instead.
As one value, either minimum or average, together with the outside diameter, length and quantity. ASTM B163 applies its wall tolerance only to the wall as ordered, not to both bases at once, and asks for the wall as a dimension rather than a gage number. Under ASTM B407, inside diameter with average wall is an accepted alternative pair.
When the tube is Nickel 200 or Nickel 201 made to ASTM B163. One end of sampled lengths from each lot is expanded with a tapered tool, and any crack through the wall fails it. Tube in Alloy 20, Alloy 31 and UNS N08120 relies on the hydrostatic or electric test on every length and the per-lot tension test.
UNS N08120. It is the only grade of the five whose standard places it among alloys used where creep and rupture resistance is required, and the only one with a grain-size test on every lot. Nickel 200, Nickel 201, Alloy 20 and Alloy 31 are chosen for corrosive media in condensers, exchangers and evaporators rather than for fired duty.
Yes, in Nickel 200 and in seamless WNR 2.4068 tube, the Nickel 201 grade, both under ASTM B163. State the length to be annealed and whether one end or both ends are treated. These tubes are pressure tested, and their tension test is taken, before the ends are annealed.
ASTM B163, for Nickel 200 and Nickel 201, through its U-bent supplementary requirement, which applies only when the order calls it up. Send the bend radii, leg lengths and number of tubes per radius from the bundle drawing with the inquiry, and the offer lists the U-bent items separately from straight lengths.
Nickel 200, Nickel 201 and Alloy 20, made up to 22 m. Tube in Alloy 31 and UNS N08120 stops at 18 m, so a longer straight tube in those two grades calls for a change of bundle length or of grade. Cut lengths carry a plus allowance only, and random lengths are agreed with the order.
Yes. ASTM B729 already requires a manufacturer's certification and test report for Alloy 20, while B163, B622 and B407 leave it to the order; we issue an EN 10204 3.1 (3.2 on request) certificate for all five grades, listing heat, standard, condition and lot test results. Added items such as PMI are reported on the same certificate.
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