What is the tensile strength of 304 stainless steel pipe?

Tensile strength indicates the actual load-bearing capacity of ductile metal materials. For 304 stainless steel pipes, once the tensile force reaches its maximum value, the material quickly fractures, so tensile strength is the fracture strength of 304 stainless steel pipes. When used in product design, the allowable stress is based on tensile strength. What is the tensile strength of 304 stainless steel pipes?

What is tensile strength?

First of all, let’s understand what tensile strength is. Tensile strength is the critical value at which metal transitions from uniform plastic deformation to localized concentrated plastic deformation, and also the maximum load-bearing capacity of metal under static tensile conditions. Tensile strength represents the resistance of a material to maximum uniform plastic deformation. Before the tensile specimen withstands the maximum tensile stress, the deformation is uniform and consistent, but after exceeding it, the metal begins to exhibit necking, which is a concentrated deformation. For brittle materials without (or with very little) uniform plastic deformation, it reflects the material’s fracture resistance.

When the steel yields to a certain level, its ability to withstand deformation increases again due to the rearrangement of the internal grains. Although the deformation develops rapidly at this time, it can only increase with the increase of stress until the stress reaches the maximum value. After that, the ability of the steel to withstand deformation decreased significantly, and large plastic deformation occurred at the thinnest part. The cross-section of the 304 stainless steel pipe decreased rapidly, causing necking until cracking and failure. The maximum stress value before the steel is stretched and cracked is called the strength limit or tensile strength.

What is the tensile strength of 304 stainless steel pipe?

The tensile strength of 304 stainless steel pipe is approximately 550MPa. The hardness of 304 pipe is very high, and the safety of products made with it is quite high. It cannot be rounded or otherwise shaped by heat treatment. It can only be processed by cold treatment, which is what we commonly use machine equipment for processing, such as bending, pressing into oval pipes, or other shapes of heterosexual pipes.

However, stainless steel pipe bending and stainless steel pipe special-shaped processing are not unlimited operations. After testing, the tensile strength of 304 stainless steel pipe is about 550MPa, and its hardness is about 150~160HB. It cannot exceed this limit during processing. After the stainless steel pipe is cold processed, the protective layer on the surface is destroyed and the corrosion resistance will decrease. After the stainless steel pipe is stretched by cold processing, the stretched stainless steel surface will become thinner and its toughness will also decrease significantly. Therefore, a limit value must be considered during processing.

Finally, the tensile strength of 304 stainless steel pipe depends on the yield strength and strain hardening index. When the yield strength is constant, the greater the strain hardening index, the higher the tensile strength. Since tensile strength represents the maximum load-bearing capacity of an actual workpiece under static tension conditions, and tensile strength is easy to measure with good reproducibility, it is one of the important mechanical properties of metal materials in engineering, and is widely used as a product specification or quality control indicator.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading our article and we hope it can help you to have a better understanding of the tensile strength of 304 stainless steel pipe. If you want to learn more about 304 stainless steel, we would advise you to visit Sino Stainless Steel for more information.

As a leading supplier of stainless steel products from China, Sino Stainless Steel provides customers with high-quality stainless steel pipes, stainless steel strips, stainless steel coils, stainless steel plates, stainless steel sheets, stainless steel bars, and stainless steel tubes at an extremely competitive price.