Welded sanitary-finish stainless steel tube for pharmaceutical and food processing equipment, in grades 304L and 316L, from 6mm to 63.5mm OD with 0.4mm to 2mm wall thickness, to ASTM A270.
Pharma and food processing tube gets evaluated on a criterion most other applications don't weigh nearly as heavily: what the interior surface actually looks like at a microscopic level, not just whether the tube meets its dimensional spec. A rougher interior surface gives bacteria more places to take hold and makes CIP/SIP (clean-in-place/sterilize-in-place) protocols less effective — which is why sanitary tube is a genuinely different manufacturing target than general process tube, even when the OD, wall thickness, and grade all look identical on paper. We manufacture sanitary tube in 304L and 316L to ASTM A270, the standard that governs both the dimensional and surface finish requirements for this application.
Sanitary finish refers primarily to interior surface roughness, measured as Ra (average roughness) in micro-inches or microns — a specific, measurable property, not a general quality claim. The smoother that interior surface, the fewer places bacteria have to establish themselves, and the more effectively CIP/SIP cleaning cycles can do their job.
| OD | 6mm to 63.5mm |
| Wall thickness | 0.4mm to 2mm |
| Grades | 304L, 316L |
| Standards | ASTM A270 |
| Grade | General positioning | Typically considered when |
|---|---|---|
| 304L | Good general corrosion resistance, standard low-carbon sanitary grade | General food and pharma processing equipment |
| 316L | Adds molybdenum for chloride/chemical resistance | Applications exposed to more aggressive cleaning chemicals or chloride-based sanitizers |
304L and 316L are part of our 300 Series range — see the full table for the complete grade family.
Grade, size, standard, quantity — send what you have and we'll respond with availability, lead time and pricing.