A519 – 4100s pipe buying guide from American Piping Products

We recently added 4130 Alloy to our already robust 4100 offering, and because of such, we decided to put this handy guide together for your reference as a pipe buyer.

If you have any questions whatsoever, don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re here to help and to make your pipe-buying experience is as smooth as possible.

First things first – the basics of the 4130 series

One of the main reasons we started stocking the 4130s was its strength-to-weight ratio. Below are a few basics of 4130 series pipe – detailing what makes this pipe so strong.

Chemistry

  • C: 0.28-0.33
  • Mn: 0.40-0.60
  • Si: 0.15-0.35
  • Mo: 0.15-0.25
  • Cr: 0.80-1.10
  • S: .040 max
  • P: .040 max

L Q&T Physical Properties

  • 80,000-95,000 yields
  • 95,000 min. tensile
  • 22 RC max hardness

P Q&T Physical Properties

  • 110,000-140,000 yield
  • 125,000 min. tensile
  • 30-36 RC max hardness

Market basics

The two primary grades of alloy pipe in the energy sector are 4130 and 4140. These are both Chrome/Moly Alloys similar to P11, but with higher carbon content. At American Piping Products, we’ll be stocking both.

Many industries use this material as feeder stock for products controlled by API 6A, 5CT and high 5L-X grades. And while the material can be heat-treated to make a variety of properties, we find that most of our customers are very specific about the grade and the properties they want, so typically, substitution is not possible. So it’s very important to work with a pipe distributor that you trust will find and deliver exactly what you want.

4130 pipe is ideal for high-pressure fluid needs

Examples of applications for the strong but relatively light 4100 series pipe include manifolds, cement manifolds and lines, blowout preventers and flow lines, mud lines, hammer unions, well servicing pumps, choke and kill applications, BOPs, standpipe, transmission lines, swivel joints, and fracking needs.
Heat-treating 4130 and 4140 basicsSecondary heat-treating is normal for this product. Normalized products can be Quenched and Tempered to L80 or P110. P110 can be tempered down to make L80, and L80 can be re-quenched and tempered to make P110.

Both L80 and P110 can be normalized back to the base properties. There is one problem though – each time you process, you add cost to your material. So you’ll want to keep that in mind when ordering 4100 product.

Common heat-treating conditions for alloyalloy-heat-treating-conditions

To learn more about 4100 series pipe

Contact us right away. One of our pipe specialists will be happy to answer any questions you might have.