What Are the Signs of Quality Steel Tubing?
Some things in life just need to be done right the first time. While it can be an inconvenience to tie a knot wrong, forget to get your clothes from the laundry, or use the wrong ingredient in a recipe, they’re just that: inconveniences. The nice thing is, most times something goes wrong in life, it just creates a minor problem. However, some things leave no room for error; construction is one of them.
If something goes wrong during the construction process, there can be serious financial and personal safety consequences. That’s why it’s essential that you always have high quality materials that you can rely on. But how can you tell which materials are high quality and which aren’t? Today, we’re exploring some signs to look out for in quality steel tubing and what to avoid.
Signs of Quality in Steel Tubing
As a steel tubing supplier, we’re constantly monitoring our products for quality. When we’re assessing our steel tubes, here are a few things we look for:
A Smooth, Uniform Surface. One of the most apparent signs of quality in steel tubing is a defect-free surface. If improperly handled, steel tubing can easily form defects such as chips, holes, and warping that can significantly impact its strength. So, make sure to look for a consistent sheen that’s free of blemishes. on your steel tubing.
The Tubing Follows Industry Standards. If you want to be really careful, we recommend looking into ASTM standards for steel tubing. Taking an hour or so to make sure that the first batch of products you received follows industry standards can tell you how much pride a supplier takes in their work.
The Tubes Underwent Quality Testing. When you’re searching for information about steel tubing suppliers, make sure ask about each supplier’s quality testing. Any steel tubing supplier worth their salt will run a batter of inspections and physical testing to make sure the tubing meets all quality standards.
Detecting Defects and Quality Issues
In a way, figuring out if a product is good quality is difficult; after all, if you’re not already an expert, how can you tell what “good” quality is? Luckily, it’s much easier to tell if something is bad quality because bad qualities reveal themselves. These are some of the signs of bad quality that you should keep in mind:
Defects in Welding. Defects in welding are usually pretty easy to spot. Just look for any welds on the tubing and check for signs such as cracks, porosity, and messy handiwork.
Defects in Materials. In quality control, it can be easy to miss the forest for the trees. That’s why it’s good to take a step back and ask questions about the material: Is it the material you asked for? Is there corrosion? Is the material the quality you expected?
Defects in Dimensions. Before installing your steel tubing, you’ll finally want to check to see if there are any dimensional issues. Specifically, you’ll want to measure if it has the right length, thickness, and diameter.
Get Quality Steel Tubing at Atlas Steel
Never gamble on quality. Here at Atlas Steel, our professionals only deliver the best steel tubing to our customers; that way, you can rest assured that your materials are always Atlas strong. Click here to request a quote today.
