Here we are talking about something about the pipe tee producing process. We list two forming processes of pipe tee as follows.

#1 Hydraulic Bulging

The hydraulic bulging of the pipe tee is a forming process in which the branch pipe is expanded by the axial compensation of the metal material. The process is to use a special hydraulic machine to inject liquid into the tube blank with the same diameter of pipe tee and to simultaneously press the two horizontal side cylinders of the hydraulic machine to press the tube blank, the volume of the tube blank becomes smaller, and the tube blank is compressed. The liquid becomes smaller as the volume of the tube blank becomes smaller, and when the pressure required for the expansion of pipe tee branch pipe is reached, the metal material flows along the cavity of the mold under the double action of the liquid pressure in the side cylinder and the tube blank to swell out of the branch pipe.

Pipe tee hydraulic bulging process can be formed at one time, and the production efficiency is high; the main pipe and shoulder wall thickness of the pipe tee is increased.

Due to the large tonnage of the equipment required for the hydraulic bulging process of the seamless steel pipe tee, it is currently mainly used for the manufacture of standard wall thickness tees smaller than DN400. The suitable forming materials are low carbon steel, low alloy steel and stainless steel with relatively low cold work hardening tendency, including some nonferrous metal materials such as copper, aluminum and titanium.

#2 Hot Press Forming 

Pipe tee hot press forming is a process in which a tube blank having a diameter larger than a Pipe tee diameter is flattened to a diameter of a pipe tee.

A hole is opened in the portion of the stretching branch pipe; the tube blank is heated, placed in a forming mold, and a die of the stretching branch pipe is loaded into the tube blank; under the action of the pressure, the tube blank is radially compressed and compressed in the radial direction. During the process, the metal flows toward the branch pipe and forms a branch pipe under the drawing of the die. The entire process is formed by the radial compression of the tube blank and the stretching process of the branch portion. Different from the hydraulic bulging pipe tee, the metal of the hot-pressed Pipe tee branch pipe is compensated by the radial movement of the tube blank, so it is also called the radial compensation process.

Due to the use of heated tees, the tonnage of the equipment required for material forming is reduced. The hot press pipe tee has wide adaptability to materials, and is suitable for materials of low carbon steel, alloy steel, and stainless steel; especially for pipe tees with large diameter and thick wall, this forming process is usually adopted.