Guangdong WEIYI Intelligent Welding Equipment Co., Ltd. has successfully developed and commercialized a dedicated titanium tube mill capable of producing welded titanium pipes that meet ASTM B338, the international standard for titanium and titanium alloy tubes for condensers and heat exchangers. This breakthrough positions WEIYI as one of the few tube mill manufacturers worldwide with proven expertise in titanium forming and welding, a notoriously difficult process due to titanium’s high reactivity with oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen at elevated temperatures. The mill is already being deployed in supply chains serving nuclear power plants and seawater desalination facilities, where titanium’s exceptional corrosion resistance in chloride-rich environments makes it the material of choice for critical heat transfer applications.
Titanium tube production requires fundamental differences in mill design compared to stainless or carbon steel processing. First, the forming section must be engineered with tighter roll gaps and higher stiffness because titanium has lower modulus of elasticity and higher springback than steel. WEIYI’s titanium mill incorporates a 24-roll forming station with individually adjustable rolls made from high-strength tool steel, allowing precise control of ovality and seam alignment before welding. Second, the welding process must be performed under an inert gas shield with extremely low dew point to prevent embrittlement from oxygen or moisture contamination. WEIYI integrates a high-frequency induction welding system with extended trailing gas shielding and a custom-designed weld box capable of maintaining oxygen levels below 50 ppm.
Third, post-weld heat treatment is typically not applicable to titanium due to its sensitivity to atmospheric contamination, so WEIYI’s mill instead relies on an inline inert gas annealing tunnel that gradually cools the weld seam while maintaining positive argon pressure. This process ensures that the weld zone retains ductility and corrosion resistance comparable to the base titanium sheet. The titanium tube mill handles outer diameters from 16 mm to 50 mm and wall thicknesses from 0.5 mm to 2.5 mm, primarily for seamless-replacement welded tubes used in shell-and-tube heat exchangers. Production speeds typically range from 3 to 8 meters per minute, slower than stainless steel due to the more sensitive welding parameters, but WEIYI has achieved consistent weld quality with a rejection rate below 2% in commercial production runs.
Two notable installations of the WEIYI titanium tube mill are currently in operation. The first supplies titanium tubing for a nuclear power plant’s auxiliary cooling system in eastern China, where the tubes must resist boric acid and high-temperature seawater for a design life of 40 years. The second serves a large-scale reverse osmosis desalination plant in the Middle East, producing titanium tubes for brine heaters that operate at temperatures exceeding 110°C with chloride concentrations above 70,000 ppm. According to feedback from these customers, WEIYI’s mill produces titanium tube with a weld joint efficiency of 90% or higher and passes full flattening, reverse flattening, and flaring tests as required by ASTM B338. “Titanium tube manufacturing has long been dominated by a handful of specialized mills, driving up costs and lead times for critical infrastructure projects,” said the head of WEIYI’s advanced materials division. “Our titanium tube mill democratizes access to this strategic technology, enabling regional tube producers to supply nuclear and desalination markets without years of trial and error.” WEIYI is now offering the titanium mill on a limited production basis, with each line custom-engineered to the customer’s target diameter range and production volume. The company also provides new rolls specifically ground for titanium’s unique springback characteristics, as well as roll regrinding services to maintain precision over multiple production campaigns.