Start from the job, not the line name
Selection on this site starts from the job, not from a line name in isolation. A buyer who names only a line, without naming the application, the size wanted or the quantities, leaves the supplier to guess the job, and the reply will be a request for more information rather than an answer. A buyer who names the job first, pipeline, water, construction, dredging or piling work, then the line, then the size and quantities, gives the supplier a job that can be answered. The application pages describe each job direction, and the line pages describe each line, and this guide sits between them, showing how the two sets of pages fit together.
Job-first selection also prevents the most common selection error, which is to choose a line on the basis of a single word, such as welded or seamless, without considering shape or application. A welded line and a seamless line can both serve a pipeline job, and a round pipe and a hollow section can both serve a construction job, but the questions that follow differ in each case. The guide pages that follow this one take each of those choices in turn, and each of them ends by returning the buyer to the enquiry, where the remaining questions belong.
Welded, seamless, shaped and scaffolding choices
The first selection choice is between four kinds of line on this site: welded pipe, seamless pipe, shaped hollow sections and scaffolding tube and couplers. Welded pipe covers ERW, SSAW and LSAW, each formed by a different welding route, and the welded pipe guide covers those three together. Seamless pipe is formed without a welded seam, and the comparison page on seamless against welded pipe sets that difference out. Hollow sections are shaped structural members with square or rectangular cross-sections, and scaffolding tube and couplers are temporary access and support members, and each of those lines has its own guide in application terms.
No choice among those four kinds is settled by a specification table on this site. The choice is settled by the job description, the shape wanted where shape matters, and the answers received in the enquiry. A buyer who needs a particular size should name it in outside diameter terms where a range is given for the line, and a buyer who needs a particular shape should name the shape, square or rectangular, where hollow sections are concerned. Those two facts, size and shape, narrow the choice more than any further catalogue wording could.
Application as the second selection step
The second selection step is the application direction. Petroleum and gas pipelines, water pipelines, construction and building, dredging projects and piling projects are the five directions named on the company About page, and each has an application page. A buyer who has chosen a kind of line should next read the application page for the job, because the application page describes the questions that job raises first, including length, handling, jointing and site conditions. A buyer who has chosen an application first should next read the line pages for the lines discussed for that application, because the line pages describe forming route, shape and size range for each line.
Application and line together still do not settle an order. Quantities, timing, trade terms, payment method and documents depend on the items, the quantities and the destination, and they are settled in the enquiry. The enquiry checklist page collects those questions in order, and a buyer who works through it before writing will find that the message almost writes itself, because each checklist question becomes one sentence of the message. That is the order this guide recommends: job, line, application, size, quantities, destination, and then the commercial questions together.
What selection cannot do on this site
Selection on this site cannot state a wall thickness, material grade, execution standard, length, pressure, temperature or coating fact for any line. It cannot state that any line suits any particular job as a matter of fact, because suitability depends on job detail that only the enquiry can carry. It cannot state quantity terms, timing, trade terms or documents for any order, because those points depend on items, quantities and destination. A buyer who needs any of those points should name the point in the enquiry, for the items named, so that the answer can be tied to those items.
What selection can do is narrow the field: from six lines to one or two, from five applications to the job at hand, and from a general question to a message that names line, application, size, quantities and destination. That narrowing is the whole purpose of this guide and of the guide pages that follow it. A buyer who arrives at the enquiry with the field already narrowed will receive a reply that can be checked against the order, and that is the outcome the catalogue is written to support.
Certificates available upon request. Please confirm the minimum order quantity in your inquiry before placing an order. Please confirm the lead time with the supplier before placing an order. Please confirm the trade terms and payment method before confirming an order.