Seamless stainless steel tubes to EN 10216-5: dimensions, weights and limit deviations

Lengths: what the standard leaves open and what the market supplies

EN 10216-5 does not specify a length. Tubes are supplied in random lengths, whose range is part of the order and is agreed there. Exact lengths with their own limit deviations are possible, but a design that has to be agreed expressly – not the normal case. That is why the drawing on this page carries no length dimension and shows the tube broken off on the right: the length is not a property of the dimension but a matter of the order.

Customary on the market are 5 to 7 m, also in double length. That is the standard length that stockholders and mills supply for tubes of this manufacturing process – seamless, stainless, a figure taken from stock programmes, not from the standard. Whoever needs a specific length states it in the inquiry; whoever plans a quantity calculates with it.

The column per 6 m in the tables on this page calculates with 6 m, because that is the round figure within this range. It is a calculation aid and not a commitment: for a different length take the Weight column (kg per m) and multiply yourself.

How weight and limit deviations come about

The weight per metre is a calculation, not a table entry: outside diameter and wall thickness give the cross-sectional area of the tube, times the density of steel of 7.85 kg/dm³. We calculate it to EN 10220 for every dimension in this overview – which is why every row shows a figure and nowhere a dash.

A limit deviation is not a property of the row but a figure that refers to the nominal dimension. The standard carries two designs, and it tolerances them differently. We calculate it for every dimension in this overview, so that the row shows the figure and not a percentage that one would still have to apply oneself.

cold finished. For the outside diameter that is ± 0.75 % of the nominal dimension, at least ± 0.3 mm. For the wall thickness that is ± 10 % of the nominal dimension, at least ± 0.2 mm.

hot finished. For the outside diameter the ratio is not the same throughout: it depends on the diameter. The row shows the figure that applies to exactly this dimension. For the wall thickness the permissible deviation depends on the tolerance class in which the tube is ordered. The row therefore shows both classes side by side.

It is recalculated every time this page is rebuilt, row by row. If one does not add up, the page is not built.

Workmanship and testing: what is not a dimension

Not everything that has to be right about a tube is in the dimension table. How straight it has to be, how round the cross-section has to be and how unevenly the wall may be distributed around the circumference – that too is part of the workmanship, and at incoming inspection it helps decide whether a delivery is accepted. Added to this is what can be seen on the delivery: the surface, the delivery condition, the ends, the marking and the protection on the way to site.

Standard reference for these details: EN 10216-5. What is stated here is the requirement – it is measured on the delivered tube, and where a tolerance class or an option comes into play, it belongs in the order.

From practice: where ordering goes wrong

Cold or hot is not a detail. The cold finished tube is more closely toleranced and has the smoother surface, the hot finished one covers the large dimensions. Anyone who names only the standard has not yet made the choice – the supplier then makes it.

The tolerance class belongs in the order. With stainless tubes the permissible deviation hangs on the class, not on a fixed percentage. For the hot finished tube the standard even carries two classes side by side for the wall thickness; which one applies is agreed.

The delivery condition decides about the surface. Heat treatment and pickling have symbols of their own and, where the medium touches the tube, are often more important than the material itself.

What this page does not say

• No material selection. EN 10216-5 carries austenitic and austenitic-ferritic stainless steels – from 1.4301 via 1.4404 and 1.4571 to duplex steel 1.4462. Which grade suits your case is decided by medium, temperature and corrosion load – not by the dimension. The materials overview puts the grades in context.
• No design calculation. Diameter and wall thickness do not yield a permissible working pressure. That calculation belongs to plant engineering.
• Only this one standard. Welded stainless tubes are covered by EN 10217-7, seamless tubes of non-alloy and heat-resistant steels by EN 10216-1 and EN 10216-2. The overview is on the page Steel pipes.

Related pages

• Steel pipes: designation, standards and selection: the overview of the pipe families, the test categories and the materials.
• Welded stainless steel tubes to EN 10217-7: the same family of materials, a different construction – and usually the cheaper way.
• Materials overview: which stainless steel is good for what – and why the diameter does not decide it.
• Tolerances and limit deviations: how limit deviations are read and what they say about a component.

How this data is compiled. This page does not reproduce a standard. It shows the dimensions you need for an enquiry, an order and installation – for sizes we supply, checked against documents from manufacturing works and suppliers and against our own range. Each value states what kind of value it is: specified by the standard, calculated by us or customary in the trade. The currently valid standard is binding. It is available from DIN Media or from your national standards body. How we select our sources and keep them up to date: About this knowledge.

Technical basis of this page: DIN EN 10216-5:2021-06 together with EN ISO 1127 for the preferred dimensions. Weight, inside diameter, water content, cross-sectional area and surface area are calculated by us from outside diameter and wall thickness; the calculation is checked against the data layer on every build of this page.