When you need surface-treated stainless steel tubing, not all coatings are created equal. Many coatings can suffer from uneven application, which is especially true for tubing because it can come in many different forms. Or, they may require burn-in or seasoning when applied to stainless steel. That takes time. The best performing protective coatings typically come down to how well the coating is applied. If your application requires the extra protection of a surface treatment, HandyTube recommends SilcoTek® coatings — featuring a patented chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process — to enhance the performance of our custom seamless stainless steel tubing.

Chemical Vapor Deposition Improves Performance

HandyTube surface-treated tubing takes advantage of SilcoTek’s patented chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. This process gives steel products a thin, yet tough layer of protection and outperforms line-of-sight processes like spraying which suffer from inconsistent deposition and uncoated areas. The CVD process makes SilcoTek coatings especially suitable for custom stainless steel tubing because:

• Parts are evenly coated, even if the pathways are very small or the design is complex. Tubing products may be straight, coiled and with narrow or wide diameters that can otherwise hinder other coating processes.
• It relies on gas and heat in a starved and inert environment. For coiled tubing, this happens internally to produce a uniform, thin coating on the inside diameter of the tubing while the outside diameter is simply heat oxidized. That means your HandyTube product will achieve optimal performance right from the start.

The result: Your SilcoTek-coated tubing will have a strong barrier against yield robbing metal ions in the stainless steel substrate. And the high purity silicon surface won’t allow corrosive gases to leach metals from the surface, further improving yields. HandyTube products are available with a choice of two SilcoTek coatings:

• SilcoNert®. This inert, non-reactive silicon coating improves flow paths to provide exceptional process control as well as consistent sampling and analytical results.
• Dursan®, a proprietary, patented NSF-certified coating that improves durability, fouling and corrosion resistance in a wide range of applications from precision instruments to harsh industrial uses.

Trust the Process

While there are many surface treatments available for tubing, HandyTube understands that the coating process is critical to ensure its stainless steel products achieve the highest performance possible. For jobs that have strict requirements for protection or non-sticking, we recommend pairing HandyTube stainless steel tubing with SilcoTek coating.

For more information about HandyTube stainless steel tubing, visit www.handytube.com.