Zhejiang Julong Steel Industry Co., Ltd.  is a large-scale stainless steel pipe production enterprise in Songyang County, and is specialized in production of stainless steel industrial pipes, heat exchanger tubes, boiler tubes and other stainless steel pipes. Today, let me introduce the history of stainless steel heat transfer tubes in the hope of helping you.

    Development of Heat Exchange Tube and Condenser Tube Materials

    Heat exchangers and condensers are one of the important equipment playing a key role in power plants, chemical plants, petrochemical equipment, pharmaceutical and food machinery and many other fields, however, heat transfer tubes and condenser tubes are their important components and directly affect the service life, safety and economical efficiency of the machines; since a large number of heat exchanger tubes and condenser tubes are required, its costs account for 60%-80% of the heat exchangers and condensers, the choice of cost-effective metallic materials for heat transfer tubes and condenser tubes is the most critical factor.

   The materials of heat transfer tubes and condenser tubes should not only have good heat transfer property, but also have good corrosion, abrasion and erosion resistance performance, and also have outstanding strength, rigidity and plasticity to be easy for manufacturing.

     In the 1980’s, copper tubes were firstly used in heat transfer tubes and condenser tubes in China, due to a wealth of copper resources in the country, excellent thermal conductivity and tractability, and moderate domestic copper prices at that time, copper was widely applied to heat transfer tubes and condensers. At that time, the stainless steel industry in China was yet at its infancy stage, its high price made stainless steel pipes unpopular.

     Theoretically speaking, copper pipes require very low corrosion and abrasion properties in fresh water; but with the development of China’s industry and agriculture, environmental pollution was getting worse, and the water quality in most parts of China had been seriously declined until 1990s, the corrosion of pipe materials caused by various harmful substances in water was increasingly serious, results in that the copper tubes had to withdraw from the field of application in heat transfer tubes and condenser tubes. By the mid-1990s, along with constant progress of China's stainless steel industry, various grades of stainless steel materials had been applied to all walks of life, and stainless steel seamless pipes were applied to heat transfer tubes and condenser tubes; as early as 1960s, foreign countries had adopted stainless steel pipes instead of copper tubes in heat transfer tubes and condenser tubes, and achieved good results. In our country, the stainless steel heat exchanger tubes and condenser tubes mainly adopt austenitic stainless steel 304, 316 L and other stainless steel grades, 304, 316L and other austenitic stainless steel demonstrate strong corrosion resistance under various media, can resist the corrosion commonly seen on the inner and outer surfaces of heat transfer tubes and condenser tubes, and have better erosion and abrasion properties and tractability than those of copper tubes. Consequently, stainless steel tubes have been so far used in heat transfer tubes and condenser tubes widely.