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Why is Abrasion-Resistant Pipes Better?

26 May.,2025

Hardox® pipes and tubes - Resist abrasion and wear - SSAB

Want to extend your equipment’s service life 2, 5 or 10 times or more? Do you need abrasion-resistant steel pipes for tough materials like wet concrete, slurry, soil, gravel, sand or wet coal ash? Is your equipment used in challenging sectors like mining, cement, dredging, recycling or steel production? Or perhaps you need a tubular part that can serve as a structural component in a bucket or other piece of equipment. If so, Hardox® 400 Tube or Hardox® 500 Tube can be the right steel tube to get the job done.

You can find more information on our web, so please take a look.

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When abrasive slurry is conveyed through steel pipe, its impact on the pipe’s inner surface can be devastating. It can cause severe problems for equipment in service, especially for pipe systems used to transport slurries that contain tailings or ores from mining operations. Such abrasive and erosive wear can cause some serious ﬁnancial damage, too – loss of production time and expensive repairs.

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In transportation systems that use pipes, abrasive wear occurs when hard particles or abrasive slurry particles slide along the wall of the pipe or are forced against it. This action on the pipe wall can cause loss of material and, in extreme cases, pipe leaks or failure.

Mild steel pipe simply cannot stand tough enough against such abrasive environments to give acceptable service life. While mild steel pipe has good strength and impact resistance, it has poor abrasion resistance compared with high-strength, abrasion-resistant steel pipe in such high-wear areas.

What about cast wear pipe? In conveying applications, the pipes are constantly being subjected to movement due to pressure surges. Heavy, brittle cast piping is not a good option in such piping systems.

Abrasion-resistant steel pipe like Hardox® pipes in high-strength steel give you a maintenance-friendly alternative in abrasive or tough applications. And you can use lighter pipes with thinner wall thickness. They are easier to handle and install and will maintain the strength you need.

Hardox® steel tubes are vital components inside the Finnish company img]:inline [.inverted_&:hover]:text-[--txt-content-interactive-inv]">Remu’s screening buckets. The screening is performed by rotors with blades in Hardox® 500 wear plate that are welded to a Hardox® 500 Tube. The rotors separate bigger particles or grind aggregated material into smaller particles, causing a lot of wear on the blades and the tubes.

By upgrading from hardfaced tubes in S355 steel to Hardox® 500 Tube, Remu reduced the thickness of the tubes to save weight and get extended service life as an extra bonus.

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There is no technical difference between Hardox® tubes and pipes. They have the same mechanical and chemical properties and wear performance. Typically, we call them tubes when they are used in structural applications subjected to outside wear, and pipes when they are used for pumping abrasive liquids or slurries. In either case, it’s a good thing Hardox® steel is through-hardened – this means it has high wear resistance throughout, from the core outwards to the surface.

Hardox® abrasion-resistant pipes and tubes are roll formed and plasma welded prior to quenching. This guarantees that the mechanical properties in the weld are the same as in the rest of the material, resulting in a more durable steel tube or pipe.

With their lean proprietary chemistries and outstanding cleanliness, these abrasion-resistant steel pipes and tubes have highly consistent properties. This gives you precision and efﬁciency in the workshop. Despite their hardness, Hardox® tubes can be welded, cut, milled and drilled using standard workshop practices.

Hardox® 400 Tube and Hardox® 500 Tubes comply with standard EN in terms of dimension tolerances and testing.

ABRASION RESISTANT PIPE WITHSTANDS MINING APPLICATIONS

When abrasive material is transported through steel pipe in mining applications, typically as pumped slurry, the effect on the inner surface is devastating. The abrasive material quickly erodes the pipe from the inside out, which in more extreme cases can result in pipe leaks and even failure, or significant maintenance costs and downtime for pipe replacement. Steel piping systems are widely used in mining to convey the product, ore, and tailing slurries to the processing plant, as well as to recycle the debris medium back to the mining area. Other mining applications include steel pipe for drop shafts for conveying product from high elevations, and for backfilling the mine excavation areas utilizing sand fill, classified tailings, or paste fill.

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For these highly abrasive applications, mild steel pipe is simply not tough enough to stand up to the abuse for more than a year or two. As a result, mining engineers are seeking superior piping alternatives to reduce maintenance and prolong system life, at a price point that will not significantly impact the budget.

“The slurry is so abrasive, that standard-grade carbon steel pipe just wears out too quickly,” explains Senior Pipe Technician John Pillard, the person charged with selecting the pipe for the Mosaic Company’s phosphate mining operation in Florida.

The Mosaic Company is the world’s leading producer and marketer of concentrated phosphate and potash, two of the primary nutrients used to create fertilizer. The Mosaic Company mines these resources in Canada (potash) and Florida (phosphate).

Phosphate is mined using large draglines and then pumped as a slurry mixture of pebble-sized rock, sand, and clay through a 20-22” steel pipeline to a beneficiation plant located anywhere from 1 ½ to 14 miles from the mining site.

“The slurry is extremely abrasive and will wear the bottom right out of the pipe, if you don’t have good pipe,” says Pillard.

Abrasion resistant pipe options
Today, there are a variety of “abrasion resistant” products and accessories that have come onto the market to replace mild steel pipe in high wear areas. Most operate on the premise that when two objects meet, the harder object wins out. As such, products are available in a variety of increasing hardness, measured on the Brinell Scale from mild steel (200 BHN) to cast iron pipe (up to 800 BHN).

Unfortunately, any product that is very hard throughout the wall thickness is also extremely brittle. This brittleness is unacceptable as piping systems are constantly flexing and moving as a result of pressure surges and spikes, and due to mechanical and physical contact at the facility. However, one type of pipe delivers the best of both worlds: an induction hardened pipe with an abrasion resistant inner surface that tapers to a strong, yet ductile outer surface.

Manufactured by Port Washington, Wisconsin-based Ultra Tech, this unique pipe is produced under the Ultra 600 brand. Ultra Tech begins with a steel pipe manufactured to a proprietary chemistry, followed by induction heating, and finally water-quenching the inner surface to create a single-wall pipe.

At 600 BHN, the inner surface of this induction hardened pipe can withstand most common abrasives, and tapers to a 250 BHN outer surface that is ductile enough to accommodate normal handling during shipment, installation and maintenance. With this proprietary process, pipe can be created in various diameters up to 40”, in varying lengths and wall thickness. Because the outer surface behaves like mild steel, the product can be cut and welded with proper procedure in the field, configured into a variety of fittings, and can accept the standard end options of flanges, weld rings and couplings.

According to Pillard, the Mosaic Company utilizes a combination of Abrasion Resistant (A-R) pipe rated at 230 BHN and the induction hardened Ultra 600. The pipe for the phosphate slurry is primarily where the Ultra 600 is utilized, as well as for a waste discharge pipe that transports large particles such as limestone and even chunks of wood to a waste pit away from the plant. Much of the A-R pipe was initially installed prior to a merger in , but since then “more of the induction hardened pipe is taking the place of the mild steel pipe simply because it’s a better value,” says Pillard.

Paste Backfilling of Mines
Another unique, high abrasion application for the Ultra 600 induction hardened pipe is for paste backfilling of mines, an alternative to the current sand fill methods. There are unique problems associated with paste fill applications, which range from extremely rapid system wear to paste separation and system blockage. Attempting to unblock several thousand feet of vertical pipeline is both dangerous and expensive. The cost to replace a prematurely worn drop shaft can exceed a million dollars. One successful solution is to maintain the vertical line full of paste. This prevents the rapid wear and tremendous impact loads caused by “air mailing” the paste fill. It also eliminates the partially full line and the accompanying air pockets which cause pipeline hammer and rapid surges in material velocity. Maintaining a full line of paste also prevents the separation and segregation which occurs as result of the free falling paste.

While basic in concept, paste fill applications require components and accessories designed specifically for this type of service. The pressures encountered can be extremely high (in excess of 4,000 psi) while the material conveyed is extremely abrasive.

The Ultra 600 induction hardened steel pipe is well suited for the paste fill process. Ultra Tech also produces the induction hardened pipe in long radius bends to further reduce wear at the bends and elbows in high wear applications such as this one.

The company is the world’s best Abrasion-Resistant Pipes supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.

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