Metal Expansion Joints

Stainless Steel Bellows & Expansion Joints

What is a Stainless Steel Bellows?

An expansion bellows is any apparatus containing one or more metal bellows used to absorb dimensional changes such as those caused by thermal expansion or contraction of a pipeline, duct, or vessel and to absorb vibrations caused by engines, pumps, motors, etc.

Stainless Steel bellows expansion joints are used as components in piping or as parts of pressure vessels.

In other words, a steel expansion joint is a device primarily formed by flexible bellows used to absorb movements in a piping system while containing pressure and a medium running through it.

Stainless Steel Bellows
Stainless Steel Bellows
Stainless Steel Bellows
Stainless Steel Bellows

Uses of a Stainless Steel Expansion Joints & Bellows

What are Stainless Steel expansion joints used for?

Bellows materials of construction can be stainless steel, carbon steel, nickel alloys, rubber or even a composite material.

Stainless Steel Metal Expansion Joints are a bellows-type device used for:

  • Absorb thermal expansion and contraction of pipelines.
  • Reduce forces and moments on equipment connections.
  • Isolate vibration from connected systems.
  • Compensate misalignment.
  • Compensate foundation settlement.

Stainless Steel Bellows are used today in almost all industrial sectors worldwide:

  • Energy
  • Engineering Companies
  • Petroleum Refining, FCC
  • Power Generation
  • Petrochemical
  • Aerospace
  • Government/ Military
  • Cryogenic
  • Engines & Turbines
  • Air-Conditioning & Air Heating
  • Aircraft Engines & Engine Parts
  • Cement Plants
  • Co-generation
  • Electrical Industrial Apparatus
  • Energy/Public Utilities
  • Food Industry
  • Gas Compression Equipment
  • Heavy Construction
  • Hydraulic plants
  • Furnaces & Ovens
  • Iron & Steel Foundries
  • Mining
  • Natural Gas Transmission
  • Nuclear
  • OEMs
  • Offshore
  • Paper Mills
  • Pharmaceutical
  • Railroad Equipment
  • Ship Building & Repairing
  • Steel Mills
  • Steel Works, Blast Furnaces
  • Water Transportation
  • General Bldg Contractors
Stainless Steel Bellows
Stainless steel flexible expansion joints
Stainless Steel Bellows Stainless Steel Expansion Joints
Stainless Steel Expansion Joints

Design and manufacture of Stainless Steel Bellows

Stainless Steel and other metal bellows are designed, manufactured and tested in accordance with:

  • E.J.M.A. (Expansion Joint Manufacturers Association, Inc.)
  • ASME VIII, Div. I, App. 26
  • EN 14917, European Standard for Metal Expansion Joints.

Circular Expansion Joints are manufactured with single or multiple ply with a diameter ranging from 15 to 10000 mm.

Rectangular Expansion Joints which, with limitless dimensions, can be supplied with different convolution and corner types.

Manufacturer stainless steel expansion joints
Manufacturer stainless steel expansion joints
Manufacturer stainless steel expansion joints

Types of expansion joints made of Stainless Steel

Our manufacturing range includes Stainless Steel and other materials Circular Expansion Joints of the following types:

Rectangular Expansion Joints which, with limitless dimensions, can be supplied with different convolution and corner types:

  • W-shaped, Camera Corner
  • V-shaped, Miter Corner (single or double)
  • U-shaped, Rounded Corner
ss expansion joints
ss expansion joints
Stainless steel flexible expansion joints
ss expansion joints and bellows
ss expansion joints and bellows
stainless steel expansion bellows
stainless steel expansion bellows

Materials Used

The essential component of an Expansion Joint resides in the degree flexibility of its bellows and this depends upon the design of its convolution and the materials used during the production process.

The choice of metals to be used in manufacturing the bellows, being the basic component of the Expansion Joint, is made taking the following criteria into account:

  • Temperature resistance.
  • Resistance to corrosion.
  • Forming capacity.
  • Mechanical characteristics.
  • Resistance to fatigue.
  • Flexibility when in use.

The tables shows the materials mostly used to produce our bellows:

Name ASTM UNS EN
304 304 S30400 1.4301 Austenitic
General Service
304L 304L S30403 1.4306
316 316 S31600 1.4401
316L 316L S31603 1.4404
316H S31609 1.4401/1.4919 -
316Ti 316Ti 1.4571 1.4571
321 321 S32100 1.4541
904L 904L N08904 1.4539
254 SMO S31254 S31254 1.4547
304H 304H S30409 1.4948 Austenitic
Heat Resisting
321H 321H S32109 1.4878
309S 309S S30908 1.4833
310S 310S S31008 1.4845
253 MA S30815 S30815 1.4835
Stainless steel grades

254 SMO and 253 MA are trademarks of Outokumpu Stainless
Name UNS EN
Inconel 600 N06600 2.4816
Monel 400 N04400 2.4360, 2.4361
Inconel 625 N06625 2.4856
Inconel 625LCF N06625 2.4856
Incoloy 800 N08800 1.4876
Incoloy 800H N08810 1.4958
Incoloy 825 N08825 2.4858
Hastelloy C4 N06455 2.4610
Hastelloy C-22 N06022 2.4602
Hastelloy C-276 N10276 2.4819
Nickel Alloys

Inconel, Monel & Incoloy are trademarks of Special Metals Corporation. Hastelloy is a trademark of Haynes International, Inc.