Stainless Steel Flexible Pipe

Advantages of Stainless Steel Flexible Pipe

Why Stainless Steel Garden Hoses Are Your Garden's Best Friend

Gardening is a timeless and rewarding pastime, allowing us to connect with nature, cultivate beautiful landscapes, and harvest the fruits of our labor. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or a novice, you know that the key to a flourishing garden lies in nurturing it with care. And when it comes to ensuring your garden's vitality, one often underestimated but crucial element is the choice of garden hose.

Durability That Stands the Test of Time
When it comes to garden hoses, durability is paramount. Traditional rubber or plastic hoses often succumb to wear and tear, leaving you with frustrating leaks and cracks. Stainless steel garden hoses, on the other hand, are built to withstand the test of time. Constructed from high-quality stainless steel, these hoses are incredibly resilient, resistant to corrosion, and built to last for years. With a stainless steel hose in your garden, you can bid farewell to the hassle of frequent replacements and repairs.

Lightweight and Flexible Design
Despite their robust construction, stainless steel garden hoses are surprisingly lightweight and highly flexible. This characteristic makes them a delight to work with, particularly when compared to their bulky rubber counterparts. Their flexibility ensures that they won't kink, twist, or tangle, allowing for a hassle-free gardening experience. You can effortlessly maneuver your hose around your garden, reaching every nook and cranny with ease.

Superior Water Flow
One of the primary goals of gardening is to ensure that your plants receive the right amount of water. Stainless steel garden hoses are engineered to deliver a consistent and superior water flow. The interior of these hoses is designed to minimize friction, allowing water to flow smoothly and without interruption. This even flow guarantees that your garden receives the hydration it needs, promoting healthier and more vibrant plants.

All-Weather Reliability
Gardening is not just a fair-weather activity; it's a year-round commitment. Traditional hoses may become brittle in cold weather or susceptible to damage from the scorching sun. Stainless steel hoses, however, are designed to withstand all weather conditions. Whether it's a chilly winter morning or a sweltering summer afternoon, your stainless steel garden hose remains reliable, ensuring your garden's well-being in any season.

Tangle-Free Storage
Storage can be a significant challenge with traditional garden hoses. The tangles and knots they form can be a constant source of frustration. Stainless steel hoses, with their flexible and kink-free design, make storage a breeze. You can simply coil them up and store them without worrying about any frustrating tangles, saving you time and effort.

Safe for Drinking Water
Besides tending to your garden, you may also use your hose for various household tasks, including providing drinking water for your pets or cleaning outdoor furniture. Stainless steel garden hoses are safe for drinking water, free from harmful chemicals and toxins often found in traditional hoses. This feature ensures that your family, pets, and plants receive only clean and safe water.

Eco-Friendly Choice
In today's world, environmental consciousness is paramount. Stainless steel garden hoses are an eco-friendly choice for several reasons. They last longer, reducing the need for replacements and, in turn, lowering waste. Additionally, their durability and resistance to damage mean fewer hoses in landfills, making them a sustainable option for your garden.

Versatility Beyond Gardening
Stainless steel garden hoses are not limited to just gardening. Their durability, flexibility, and superior water flow make them ideal for a variety of tasks. Whether it's washing your car, filling a pool, or cleaning your patio, these hoses are versatile and reliable, ensuring that your investment extends beyond your garden.

Your choice of garden hose can significantly impact the health and vitality of your garden. Stainless steel garden hoses are the ultimate garden companion, offering durability, flexibility, superior water flow, and all-weather reliability. Their tangle-free storage, safety for drinking water, and eco-friendly nature make them the best friend your garden could have. Make the switch to stainless steel and experience the difference it can make in nurturing a thriving, beautiful garden.

What Makes Up a Flexible Metal Hose?

In order to understand flexible metal hose assemblies and how they serve various applications it's best to review their anatomy. In its simplest form, a metal hose is made of four basic components:

• Corrugated tubing
• Braid
• Braid collars
• End-fittings

Separately, these parts are really quite simple. However, they can be customized to form a variety of configurations, enabling flexible metal hoses to be an optimal solution in a number of industries. Let's examine each of these components individually and discuss how they all work together to create value.

Corrugated Tubing
The corrugated tubing is the core component of a flexible metal hose. Not only does it comprise the bulk of an assembly, but it also plays a part in key value-added attributes of the assembly, such as corrosion resistance, pressure rating, and flexibility.

Corrosion Resistance
Corrosion resistance is simply a matter of selecting the correct alloy for the media that is being conveyed. For most applications, 321 stainless steel provides sufficient corrosion resistance. If additional chemical resistance is needed, 316 stainless steel can be used, which contains more nickel and other alloying elements to increase chemical resistance. Chlorine transfer applications require the highest degree of corrosion resistance. For chlorine and other highly-critical applications, C276 may be the best choice.

Pressure Rating
Pressure rating (also referred to as "maximum allowable working pressure" or "MAWP") is the term use to express the ability of a hose to handle internal pressure. At Hose Master, the pressure ratings of our hose is determined by conducting various pressure testing in our in-house Product Analysis Lab.

The pressure rating that "creates value" for an assembly depends on the application in which the assembly is going to be used. For many standard applications, a hose with a lower pressure rating can be used, whereas more critical applications may demand the use of a hose that can withstand higher pressures.

Flexibility
Flexibility can mean different things to different people. To some, it may refer to a hose's ability to be bent into a tight radius. To others, it may mean a hose has a high cycle life. Or, it may mean that a hose will bend easily without exerting high spring forces on the surrounding equipment. Fortunately, there is some flexibility allowed in this definition thanks to Hose Master's proprietary forming processes, which create metal hose that provides all three of these qualities.

For corrugated metal hose, flexibility is expressed by the "minimum dynamic bend radius" (MDBR), which is derived through testing in our in-house lab. Depending on the application, a larger MDBR may be acceptable or a tighter MDBR may be required. If an application requires a tighter MDBR, then a close-pitched hose would provide a valuable solution. Close-pitched hoses feature more corrugations per foot than standard hose, which distributes the bending stresses over more corrugations and allows the hose to be bent more tightly.

Braid
The second component of metal hoses is the braid. Along with hose selection, the braid contributes to an assembly's ability to withstand high pressures.

There are multiple factors that can contribute to the functionality of the braid, such as the wire diameter, the number of wires per carrier, the number of carriers on the braiding machine and the percentage of braid coverage. The pressure rating of a hose may also be increased by adding additional layers of braid or using braided braid. Proper braid design has a significant effect on the working pressure and cycle life of the hose. Utilizing a braid package with a high-percentage braid coverage that is braided directly onto the hose helps to ensure that the braid is well-secured on the hose, protecting the assembly from potential deformation and ensuring maximum cycle life.

Braid Collars
While only accounting for a small portion of a hose assembly, the braid collars have an important role. Braid collars serve to join the inner corrugated hose and the braid together during the cap welding process, in which a TIG weld joins the hose, braid and braid collar together into the cap weld bead. This cap weld needs to be perfect, as it will be the base for the subsequent attachment weld and is the connection point holding all of the components of the hose together.

Along with helping join the hose components together, the braid collars also serve to protect and isolate the corrugations near the cap weld from any movement. After the cap welding process, these corrugations are now a "heat-affected zone" and are thus unable to functionally cycle with the rest of the hose. The braid collars ensure that any bending stresses are properly distributed over the right corrugations, preserving the cycle life of the assembly.

End-Fittings
The final component added to an assembly is the fittings. There are a lot of options available when it comes to fittings selections, allowing flexible metal hose assemblies to be customized to fit into a variety of applications. Therefore, it is important that the fittings selected fit the needs of the application. Be sure to verify the size, alloy, and pressure requirements of an application before making a definitive fittings selection.