Pipe

Steel Pipe

Nucor Skyline has vast experience in manufacturing pipe piling products for the North American steel foundation industry. With our strategically located manufacturing plants, we can service the needs of any public or private project throughout the region.

Steel pipe offers mechanical and physical characteristics that make it one of the most versatile construction products available. As a structural element, steel pipe remains unrivaled when compared to alternate materials. The flexibility offered by the manufacturing process, quality control and low production cost positions steel pipe to be the new shape of steel in many industries.

Advantages of Nucor Skyline Steel Pipe

• Wide Range of Diameters, Thicknesses and Lengths
  • ERW Straight Seam: From 2-3/8” to 24” OD; Up to 0.625” Thickness
  • Spiralweld: Up to 120” OD; 1” Thickness
  • Rolled & Welded: Up to 204” OD; 2.25” Thickness
  • Micropile: 5.5” – 20” OD; Prime and Secondary
• Custom Lengths and Thicknesses
• Custom Fabrication Services
• Spiralweld Pipe Accepted by DOTs in Seismically Active Areas
• In-house and Third-Party Testing Capabilities
• Melted and Manufactured in the USA

Types of Steel Pipe

Nucor Skyline manufactures three types of pipe made from steel with similar physical and chemical properties. These are all welded in accordance with the required specification and are just as strong as the base material.

Straight Seam Electric Resistance Welded (ERW) Pipe

ERW pipe is made from steel coil with weld seams running parallel to the pipe. The width of the coil is the same as the circumference of the pipe, limiting diameters to 24 inches. However, the manufacturing process is fast, making it ideal for large production runs of sections with diameters of 24 inches or less.

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Spiralweld Pipe

Spiralweld pipe, like ERW, is also manufactured from steel coil. The difference is that the coil is wound at an angle, so the weld runs around the outside of the pipe in the shape of a helix. This allows for a lot more variation in diameter and thickness than ERW pipe. Spiralweld pipe is most commonly used for pipe diameters between 24 inches and 120 inches and for thicknesses of 1.0 inches or less.

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Rolled & Welded Pipe

Rolled & Welded pipe is made from sections of plate rolled into cans. The seam of the can is welded and then the individual cans are welded together to make the finished pipe. Rolled & Welded pipe can be made in diameters of up to 16 feet and over 2.0 inches in thickness.

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Applications of Steel Pipe

Bearing Piles

Deep foundations are required when the shallow soils are not strong enough to support the loads from the structure. Pipe piles are commonly used in deep foundations and transfer the loads from building to stronger soil layers found deep underground. The loads are resisted through skin friction and point bearing. Pipe can be driven either open-ended or closed-ended, with points or plates. If driven with plates, the pipes can then be filled with concrete to add strength to the pile. Usually the money spent on plates, rebar, and concrete would be better spent on a larger, thicker pile. Pipe piles range in size from several inches to several feet in diameter and can be easily spliced to create piles hundreds of feet in length.

Caissons

Caissons are most commonly used for bridge applications where it is necessary to drill into river bed material below water to found pilings or a pier foundation. Caissons are usually large diameter steel pipe, upwards of 10’ or more. Large diameter rolled and welded steel pipe provides the installation capability for these high-strength foundation systems.

Drilled Shaft Casing

Pipe casing, temporary or permanent, is often required during the construction of drilled shafts. The casing is used to hold the hole open while the reinforcement cage and concrete are installed. The ability to inspect the bottom of the hole and the elimination of any variations in the diameter of the finished drilled shaft makes for a much higher quality, finished pile. In the “Standard Guidelines for the Design and Installation of Pile Foundations” ASCE recommends a factor of safety that is 38% higher on the structural capacity of drilled shafts without casing, than those with casing.

Combination Walls

Large diameter pipes have high bending strengths and are often used in combination sheet pile walls. The combination of large diameter pipe piles and steel sheet piles, which is often referred to as combi-walls, pipe-z walls or king pile walls, makes a very efficient system. Like other combined walls, the king pile takes the majority of the load and the sheet pile transfers the load to the pipe and to the soil.

Structural Sections

The symmetry of pipe gives it the same bending strength, in any direction, which makes it an excellent product for the resistance of buckling. The stress required to buckle an axial member decreases with length. The radius of gyration has the opposite effect and increases the ability of a section to resist buckling. The W and HP sections have differnt radii of gyration (rx and ry) for the X and Y axes, while remaining constant for a pipe. The end result is that a pipe can take much higher loads for long, unsupported lengths.

Threaded Micropile Casing

Micropiles are small diameter, bored cast-in-place piles, with most of the applied load being resisted by steel reinforcement. They are constructed by drilling a borehole, often using casing, then placing steel reinforcement and grouting the hole. Micropiles have a wide range of uses and are becoming a more mainstream method of supporting and resupporting foundations, seismic retrofits, stabilization of slopes and even earth retention. Micropiles are an ideal pile for complex sites where low vibration or low noise levels are required, or where limited access such as low headroom and drilling is difficult.

Sign Poles, Towers & Transmission Lines

Sign poles and towers are designed to resist large bending loads at the base of the structure. The availability and wide variety of thicknesses of large diameter pipe allow designers to pick the exact size needed to handle their particular project. Pipes can also be supplied in very long lengths, are simple to splice and easy to drill into hard ground. Reduction collars can facilitate the splicing of different diameters to make the design as efficient as possible.

Mining

Mining operations take place far beneath the surface in hazardous conditions. Personnel, equipment and air shafts are all integral parts of the mine. Vertical pipe sections are often used to construct the shafts. The large range of diameters and thicknesses make steel pipe the material of choice for various shaft requirements. Some of the shafts are hundreds, if not thousands, of feet long and pipe can be supplied in sections with the ends prepped for splicing. Bracing rings can be used to keep the pipe thicknesses to a minimum.

Jacked & Bored Pipe

The placement of underground utilities is often done with jacked and bored pipe. Sections of pipe are pushed through the ground with hydraulic jacks between excavations or under a hill. The next section of pipe is then spliced onto the first and the jacking continues. Once the jacking is complete, the pipe is cleaned out to install the utilities. This allows the placement of utilities without extensive excavation which can disrupt roads, railroads, homes and businesses.

Sewer/Water Line Pipe

Welded steel pipe provides an effective method for transporting liquids, air, and gas. Steel Pipe is pound per pound stronger than any other type of line pipe. Pipe can be designed to handle both the internal and external pressures of most applications. Welded steel pipe offers many advantages, such as: strength, economy and ease of installation. Nucor Skyline is SPFA certified and manufactures hydrostatically tested pipe in outside diameters ranging from 10-3/4" – 90". Our production process utilizes a double submerged arc weld process in both spiralweld and rolled & welded pipe. Hydrostatically tested pipe lengths range from 30' – 60', wall thicknesses from 0.250" – 2.0" wall and produced to one of the following industry standards: AWWA C200/ASTM A139/ASTM A134.