| | .jpg) | Roll Formed Metal Tubes & Tubing are produced for complex and highly specialized end uses. It is not your "run of the mill", standard grade tubing. In some cases this tubing is produced for cost savings such as:
- Prefinishing that is less expensive than Post Finishing.
- Thinner wall that is available normally
- Inline: Holes, Slots, Perforating, Embossing, End Fabricating, Cut-to-Length, and other in-line fabrications, that prevent expensive secondary fabrications
- Open Seam, Hemmed, Flanged & Finned Seams, that give the tubing dimensional features that would require expensive secondary work to accomplish
- In-Line operations such as: insertion of molding, and materials, double-sided tape applicating, Cladding of one material over another. In other instances Roll Formed Tubing is the best and sometimes only method to achieve a desired functional design result
- Special Sizes and diameters, that are tooled for or can be tooled for, that are not commonly available
- Special and unusual Hollow Shapes and tubing
- Specific designated openings or gaps, with or without hems, fins or flanges, on Open Seam Tubing needed for: slide areas, compression fitting, tracks, guides, inserts & insert holders, covering, etc.
Except for seam welding on only unusual hollow shapes, Roll Formed Tubing is not meant as a substitute for the most common forms of tubing such as: Welded Seam, Extruded, Seamless, and Drawn metal tubing which we do not manufacture. Since Roll Formed Tubing is far different than those standard grades of tubing, there needs to be a less expensive design capability or required design function to use Roll Formed Tubing.
Our Roll Formed Tubing is produced on a roll forming machine similar to a tube mill. It is not produced with a rolled stamping method for short lengths or on a three roll bender for larger diameter structural pipe, or stove pipe, etc. Our accurate, finished, Cut-to-Lengths are generally over 12" long but can be as short as 4". We can also produce them up to 40 feet long, though requirements are almost always shorter than that. Lock Seam Tubing is typically not more than .024" thick or thinner than .012" unless a special need is required which usually requires new tooling. Lock Seam doesn't have equal strength and torque bearing capability as the same thickness in welded seam, seamless, drawn, or extruded, tubing and is not meant to hold pressurized liquid or vapor. Open Seam, Split, Flanged, Finned, & Hemmed Seam falls within our full range of thickness capability of .003" through .125" thickness. Round Corrugated and Duct style tubing is generally in the thinner ranges but can go up to .075" thick.
Materials used are: Steel, Stainless, Aluminum, Brass, Bronze Alloys, Tempered, Clad, Perforated, Woven Wire, Expanded, Copper, & Galvanized. Prefinishes available which are so important to make our type of tubing an option are: PrePainted, PrePolished, PreAnodized, PrePlated, PreLaquered, Strippable-PVC Coated, PreLaminated Vinyl, Galvanized-(G30, G60, G90, G210, Bonderized, Electro), Aluminized, Galvanneal, Galvalume, Zinc DiChromate, TFS(Tin Free Steel), Tin Plate. | |
