Why spiral welded pipe is not used in refinery and petrochemical plants?

Question

Why spiral welded pipe is not used in refinery and petrochemical plants?

Answer 1

When spiral pipe first came out, there were a lot of problems with them being out of round.  So, when welders attempted to join the ends of two sections (or weld on flanges), it became very hard to fit them up.  This resulted in a lot of failures.  Since then, most process plants have avoided using it, although it is used frequently for low pressure applications like water drains.

Answer 2

it really depends on the service that the pipe is conveying ie: i can assume it would be for a steam line, then problem with spiral wound piping in the petrochem industry is the lack of NDT that can be done on this type of piping and the high failure rate at the welding seem of the pipe, it is also generally very thinly walled pipe being only 2 - 5 mm thick....this pipe is normally only rated to low kPa requirements and should be only used for ducting of exhaust and low pressure steam lines. However it is used in alot of refinery's still to this date but only for exhaust stacks and LP steam lines.