The manufacturing of chemicals, petrochemicals, and oil & gas products, exposes process equipment to highly corrosive fluids.  Analyses of fluids, pressures, and manufacturing temperatures used in these processes have shown Duplex Stainless Steel Pipe to be very corrosion resistant.

The fluids used in chemical processing are extremely corrosive and the materials of construction for processing equipment require very special consideration. Without correct specification, conditions will rapidly decline, leading to unit repair or replacement and expensive manufacturing downtime.

The following information is provided as background on Duplex Stainless Steel, the alloy’s characteristics, its strengths and how consideration of a Duplex Stainless Steel Piping System could be the answer to corrosion.

Duplex Stainless Steel Piping offers long-term and cost-effective methods to prevent damaging corrosion.

Life Cycle Benefits of Duplex Stainless Steel Piping Systems

Duplex Stainless Steel Piping is highly cost-effective over the entire life cycle of the equipment. Properly maintained, Duplex Stainless Steel Piping can operate for decades, making them a very economical choice over other reactive metals.

 Duplex Stainless Steel Piping can:

  • Deliver many years of economical service life
  • Eliminate expensive downtime due to equipment failure
  • Provide outstanding corrosion resistance
  • Accommodate high steam pressure
  • Remove possibilities of process fluid leaks
  • Effectively protect against stress cracking

Duplex Stainless Steel the Metal

Duplex Stainless Steel offers excellent resistance to corrosion along with very high mechanical strength, which allows for lighter fabrication and greater design flexibility. With this high corrosion resistance, Duplex Stainless Steel provides more uptime than Carbon Steel or conventional Stainless Steel.

Duplex Stainless Steel’s beneficial performance is attributable to a combination of austenitic and ferrite alloys in its microstructure, achieving both strength and high corrosion resistance.

With its myriad applications, the process industries are always in pursuit of highly reliable materials.  Duplex Stainless Steel Piping is widely endorsed by plant operations management and maintenance specialists who appreciate their toughness and ability to withstand the very aggressive fluids inherent in the process.

Compared with some other materials – graphite, ceramic, PTFE or glass, nickel alloys – Duplex Stainless Steel is a reliable and in the long term, a less costly material of construction offering high strength even in highly demanding applications. These qualities have led to acceptance and growth of the use of Duplex Stainless in Pipe, Piping Systems, Reactors, Columns, Towers and Storage Tanks as well as Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers in sulfuric acid processing as well as the production of urea and other fertilizers.

It is important to note that due the proportions of austenitic and ferrite alloys, both Duplex Stainless Steels and Super Duplex Stainless Steels require considerably more care in welding preparation and fabrication procedures.  Inexperience or less than vigilant attention to these preferred practices can contaminate the resulting welding, rendering the fabrication compromised in strength and corrosion-resistance.

Please see Applications of Duplex Stainless Steel for a more in-depth look at additional uses for Duplex Stainless Steel that includes some comparative corrosion resistance data, media, concentrations and temperatures.

Our Technical Resources area also has a complete section on properties and corrosion resistance for Duplex Stainless Steel.

Duplex Stainless Steel Piping Design

Duplex Stainless Steel Piping Systems are some of TITAN’s most frequently fabricated products. TITAN designs and custom manufactures Duplex Stainless Steel Piping for many different process applications. Consider spooled piping which can eliminate the majority of flanged connections.

Designs and accessories to Duplex Stainless Steel include:

  • Solid wall
  • Large diameter
  • Explosive clad
  • Individual straight
  • Elbows or Tee fittings
  • Flanges and gaskets
  • Spooled sections
  • ID polishing
  • Jacketed for heat transfer
  • Dual containment designs

Weld end connections with final field welding can also be supplied.

Manufacturing capacities include widths up to 120″ diameter, 300’ in length and weights up to 200 tons.

Piping larger than 8″ diameter is normally supplied as rolled and welded cylinders meeting the requirements of ASME Code, Section 8, Division I.

 TITAN manufactures pressure equipment in accordance with all major international design standards and pressure vessel codes.

Using both HTRI and AspenTech thermal design software, we design and custom build many different styles of Duplex Stainless Steel Pipe.

Duplex Stainless Steel Corrosion Resistance

Both Duplex Stainless Steel Piping and Super Duplex Stainless Steel Piping are suitable for applications in the chemical processing, pharmaceutical, agricultural, fertilizer, petrochemical, and power industries.

TITAN’s  Duplex Stainless Steel Piping are very well suited to processes using salts, acids and other chemicals which can be damaging to lesser materials.

Duplex Stainless Steel Piping is very often specified for highly-corrosive industrial applications and is frequently used in processes where potassium or sodium chemistries are present.

TITAN Duplex Stainless Steel Piping Systems are used in a wide variety of oxidizing and reducing environments. To view a list of materials where Duplex Stainless Steel is commonly used, please visit Applications of Duplex Stainless Steel.

For a general guide on corrosion resistance, temperatures and concentrations please see TITAN’s publication, “Corrosion Resistance of Metals in Various Chemical Media” for additional information.*

*Please Note: Final selection of material must be based on actual evaluation of the metal in the corrosive medium under study.

 

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