API 5L steel pipes are steel pipelines widely used in petroleum and natural gas industries, like conveying gas, water, and oil. The American Petroleum Institute specification API 5L covers seamless steel line pipe and welded (SAW, ERW, CDW )steel line pipe. API Line pipe is best & economical piping solution for transportation of gas, water, and oil. There are grades Grade A, B, X42, X52, X56, X60, X65, X70, X90 and X100. The two digit number following the "X" indicates the Minimum Yield Strength (in 000’s psi) of pipe produced to this grade. The technical committee made recognized that there are two basic Product Specifications Levels (PSL) of technical requirements and therefore developed PSL 1 and PSL 2. PSL 1 is a standard quality for line pipe where PSL 2 contains additional chemical, mechanical properties, and testing requirements.
API 5L PSL 2 is more stringent requirement as compare to API 5L PSL1 , in API 5L PSL2 charpy test is mandatory, tensile strength and chemical composition is more as compare to API 5L PSL1. Due to the different pipe forming types, API 5L PSL 2 steel pipes has different delivery condition with the relative suffix like “R”, “N”, “Q”, “M”. For the different delivery conditions, API 5L PSL 2 steel pipes have different chemical composition, mechanical properties requirements.
Common Grades of API 5L Steel Pipes
| PSL1 |
PSL1 Grade A25, PSL1 Gr.A, PSL1 Grade B, PSL1 X42, PSL1 X46, PSL1 X52, PSL1 X56, PSL1 X60, PSL1 X65, PSL1 X70, PSL1 X80 |
| PSL2 |
PSL2 Grade B, PSL2 X42, PSL2 X46, PSL2 X52, PSL2 X56, PSL2 X60, PSL2 X65, PSL2 X70, PSL2 X80 |
| PSL2 Grade BN, PSL2 X42N, PSL2 X46N, PSL2 X52N, PSL2 X56N, PSL2 X60N, PSL2 X65N, PSL2 X70N, PSL2 X80N |
| PSL2 Grade BQ, PSL2 X42Q, PSL2 X46Q, PSL2 X52Q, PSL2 X56Q, PSL2 X60Q, PSL2 X65Q, PSL2 X70Q, PSL2 X80Q |
| PSL2 Grade BQS, PSL2 X42QS, PSL2 X46QS, PSL2 X52QS, PSL2 X56QS,PSL2 X60QS, PSL2 X65QS, PSL2 X70QS, PSL2 X80QS (S for sour service) |
| PSL2 Grade BM, PSL2 X42M, PSL2 X46M, PSL2 X52M, PSL2 X56M, PSL2 X60M, X65M, PSL2 X70M, PSL2 X80M |
| PSL2 Grade BMO, PSL2 X42MO, PSL2 X46MO,PSL2 X52MO, PSL2 X56MO,PSL2 X60MO, PSL2 X65MO, PSL2 X70MO, PSL2 X80MO (O for offshore service) |
API 5L steel pipe is available in seamless pipe and welded pipe, mainly used for pipeline transportation systems in the petroleum and natural gas industries.
