When quality assurance matters most
Industrial Tube Manufacturing produces a class-leading stainless steel tube, HygienicTube™ is New Zealand manufactured, primarily used for process lines in dairy factories, breweries, distilleries and other sanitary applications.
Our precision stainless steel tube offers a wide range of benefits:
Local production provides the certainty of additional supply, should project requirements change. We can accommodate your additional needs, offering potential for significant time savings due to the short, local supply chain.
Each batch of Hygienic Tube™ undergoes extensive quality checks throughout the manufacturing process to meet the AS 1528.1 standard. We further exceed the standard in areas we’ve identified to improve the product performance. This allows Hygienic Tube™ to be specified for bending and forming operations.
Fully enclosed and automated, clean-in-place (CIP) systems are a key application that tests the integrity of stainless steel tube in process lines. At Industrial Tube, we continuously improve our quality control and manufacturing processes to ensure superior reliability under these demanding conditions.
Industrial Tube QA management processes include full traceability, dimensions and tolerance inspections, weld colour management and buff polishing. Weld integrity tests are:
Hygienic Tube™ is manufactured from cold-rolled, annealed and skin-passed coil strip (2B) in grades 304L or 316L to ASTM A240/A240M. We source from leading international mills to our exacting specification, with a tight thickness tolerance window.
Precision tube manufactured from cold drawing coil.
HygienicTube™ is longitudinally welded through an automatic TIG welding process with no addition of filler material. Tube with diameters of 31.8mm and above are internally cold worked with the internal weld bead rolled flat to form a smooth internal surface. Tube with diameters of 25.4mm and below are in an as welded condition.
Tube is formed in small stages at slower speeds to minimise work hardening, allowing the formed tube to be more easily bent or manipulated. The first stage of polishing is performed on-line. Mill lengths are all end deburred on the run out table and final QC checks are performed at this time.
Polishing is completed off-line before line marking with our identification, the standard, heat and work order numbers. The tube is then sleeved and packed, ready for dispatch.
Eddy current testing is a non-destructive testing (NDT) method that uses electromagnetic induction to detect flaws, cracks and other imperfections. All tube is in-line eddy-current tested for integrity to ASTM A1016M.
The standard finish of HygienicTubeTM is buff polished to a 320G finish. The internal surface quality of our tube (excluding the weld zone) is typically 0.2μm to 0.6μm Ra. The internal weld zone roughness allows for a maximum Rt value of 14.0μm. Our results typically range from 2.0 to 6.5 Rt.
Industrial Tube’s line marking identification is “ITMNZ HYGIENIC – TUBE.” All tube is individually line marked with the heat number for identification and batch traceability.
For ease of identification 304L is sleeved in CLEAR plastic and 316L in BLUE plastic.
Bundles are strapped with timber cleats and plywood for the forklift plate. See sizing tables for individual bundle sizes.
CWBP = Cold worked buff polished
AWBP= As welded buff polished
AS 1528.1 test certificates are provided with each order as per EN 10204 Type 3.1.
| Yield strength | Tensile Strength | El % on Lo = 50mm |
|---|---|---|
| 170 MPa | 485 MPa | 40 |
| C | S | P | Mn | Si | Cr | Ni | Mo | N | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Min: | 18.000 | 8.000 | 2.000 | ||||||
| Max: | 0.030 | 0.030 | 0.045 | 2.000 | 0.750 | 20.000 | 12.000 | 3.000 | 0.100 |
| C | S | P | Mn | Si | Cr | Ni | Mo | N | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Min: | 18.000 | 8.000 | |||||||
| Max: | 0.030 | 0.030 | 0.045 | 2.000 | 0.750 | 20.000 | 12.000 | 0.000 | 0.100 |
Industrial Tube offer in-house annealing treatment for austenitic stainless tube to standards ASTM A249 or A269. We can accommodate 6.35-76.2mm tube. Annealing is performed to reduce the hardness of the formed tube, increase its ductility and improve the weld zone micro-structure.
Difference between max and minimum diameters at any one cross section to be within OD tolerances. Our in-house R&D team have developed industry leading, proprietary in-line processes to control ovality and provide exceptional roundness in our tube.
Lead times are very good, and I believe this is in part due to Industrial Tube offering an end-to-end service. Having the tube manufactured on-site, stored on-site, and then laser cut on-site, reduces delays in the production schedule. We really noticed this when we experienced a surge in demand for our product, and we exceeded our forecasted requirements. Industrial Tube was able to react quickly and increase output to meet our additional requirements. The staff at Industrial Tube are not just ‘doing a job’, they care about their output. We really appreciate that as a client. That’s the stuff money can’t buy.
End-to-end manufacturing, streamlined. Design, prototyping, and production — all managed in-house for precision and control.
