The emergence and widespread use of metal corrugated tubes, corrugated expansion joints, and corrugated tube heat exchangers have made corrugated tubes an important application field for connecting, compensating, and heat exchange components. They have broken through the scope of instrument elastic components and are mainly used in pipeline systems in industries such as power, metallurgy, petrochemicals, and central heating. They serve as flexible connections and thermal compensation components, and can also be used as heat exchangers in heat exchange systems. Traditional corrugated tube elastic components have expanded into new application areas, which has become the development trend of corrugated tube components. The design, manufacturing, installation, and operation management of metal bellows compensators consist of multiple stages. Therefore, reliability should also be considered from several aspects. When selecting materials for corrugated pipes in heating networks, in addition to their work efficiency, we should also consider their medium, working temperature, and external environment. We must also take into account the potential impact of stress corrosion, water treatment agents, and pipeline cleaning on the materials. Based on this, we point out the economic and practical production optimization of corrugated pipes in terms of material, welding, forming, material cost, and performance.
Double wall corrugated pipe expansion joint is a new type of pipe developed abroad in the 1970s, which has the advantages of light weight, high strength, convenient construction, and material saving. Compared with light wall pipes of the same strength, it can save about 40% of raw materials and is widely used in fields such as communication optical cable sheaths, building drainage, municipal drainage, and low-voltage irrigation in farmland. In recent years, the application field of double wall corrugated pipes has gradually expanded, and in the field of communication cable protective sleeves, they have basically replaced cement pipes. Compared with other plastic pipes, its usage is also relatively large. In the field of building drainage, due to its slightly poor sound insulation performance and insufficient development of pipe fittings, the usage is not very high. But in terms of municipal drainage and factory discharge, especially the increasing use of large-diameter buried double wall corrugated pipes.
Metal corrugated pipes have good ductility, high tensile, compressive, and shear strength, small structural cross-section, light weight, fast construction speed, and can provide large-span structures. With the continuous improvement of scientific and technological level and the development of China's corrugated pipe industry, spatial corrugated pipe structures are increasingly favored by people. Space structure refers to a structure that is in a three-dimensional state, exhibits three-dimensional stress characteristics under the action of load, and works in space. Flat grid structures, mesh shells, and suspension structures have been widely used in China and are familiar to people. Bellows material is a typical spatial structure. Bellows pipes are widely used in construction projects.
Domestic corrugated pipe enterprises have also exposed some problems in their development process. Firstly, the scale is relatively small. Secondly, the technology is low. Thirdly, the scope involved is narrow. Fourthly, the impact and driving ability on related industries are not significant. Taking into account the above factors, the overall efficiency of the domestic corrugated pipe manufacturing industry has not yet reached a good level, and its fundamental role in the national economy is not yet obvious. In order to reverse the above situation, domestic corrugated pipe manufacturing must also strengthen the integration of industry wide technology and resources in order to exert greater influence in the international market. We must devote ourselves to building a flexible and specialized manufacturing platform, continuously meeting the personalized needs of customers while improving our own scale and professional manufacturing level. Mass customization is a breakthrough in traditional production scale, overcoming the dilemma of single piece, small batch, and economies of scale, and creating conditions for the improvement of market competitiveness of corrugated pipes in China.