Hollow Bar Advantages For Component Manufacturing Industries
Hollow bar and mechanical tubing provide an economic and efficient means of supplying high quality raw material stock for the manufacture of radially machined components; providing a cost effective solution to the use of solid bar.
Hollow bar minimizes material wastage and reduces the total machining time requirements by avoiding the initial drilling operation.
Typical manufacturers that use stainless steel hollow bar to make components that are used in:
- general engineering
- chemical & petrochemical plants
- automotive production
- paper production plants
- textile production plants
- food production equipment
- anti-friction and slide bearing production
IMCO GRADES
Our improved machinability technology ‘IMCO’ used advanced technologies and the benefit our integration with COGNE group to deliver consistent improvements in machinability and productivity together with the resilience of integrated supply chain.
IMCO Grades: as an integrated manufacturer we control the non-metallic inclusions to give them characteristics that improve the machinability. We convert the inclusions from hard, abrasive particles to softer self-lubricating particles without comprising important aspects such as corrosion resistance.

USA | Europe EN 10216-5 | Others | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
IMCO® Designation | DMV Designation | UNS | Designation (grade) | Standard ASTM | Steel No. | Designation | Standard (SS) | Standard (BS) |
IMCO® 304L | DMV 304LMC | S 30403 | MT 304L (TP 304L) | A 511 A (312) | 1.4307 | X2CrNi18.9 | 2352 | 3045 11 |
IMCO® 316L | DMV 316LMC | S 31603 | MT 316L (TP 316L) | ADIT A (312) | 1.4404 | X2CrNiMo17.12.2 | 3165 11 | |
IMCO® 4435 | DMV 316L MoS*MC | 1.4435 | X2CrNiMo18.14.3 | 2353 | 316S 13 |
(...) Grade designation and / or Standard not specific for Hollow Bars.
* DMV 316L with 2.5-3% Mo.
Materials

Standard Grades
Hollow bar and mechanical tubing are supplied in a range of specially selected stainless and acid-resistant standard grades chosen to cover the majority of the corrosion and processing problems that occur in day to day practice.
Sustainability
Hollow bar from DMV demonstrates strong sustainability benefits. Improved machinability, reduced tool wear, reduced scrap and the process efficiency that the use of DMV Hollow bar delivers are tangible and deliverable benefits to be considered.

DMV Designation | USA | Europe EN 10216-5 | Others | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UNS | Designation (grade) | Standard ASTM | Steel No. | Designation | Standard (SS) | Standard (BS) | |
DMV 304 | S 30400 | MT 304 (TP 304) | A 511 (A 312) | 1.4301 | X5CrNi18-10 | 2333 | 304 S15 |
DMV 316 | S 31600 | MT 316 (TP 316) | A 511 (A 312) | 1.4401 | X5CrNiMo17-12-2 | 316 S31 | |
DMV 321 | S 32100 | MT 321 (TP 321) | A 511 (A 312) | 1.4541 | X6CrNiTi18-10 | 2337 | 321 S31 |
DMV 316Ti | TP 316 Ti | 1.4571 | X6CrNiMoTi17-12-2 | 2350 | |||
DMV 22.5 | S 31803 | 1.4462 | X2CrNiMoN22-5-3 |
(…) Grade designation and/or standard not specific for Hollow Bars.
Class Leading Performance
When benchmark tested alongside our competitors we demonstrate improved tool wear and chip formation.
With the assurance that IMCO meets and exceed the industry norms when considering key characteristics such as corrosion resistance, tolerance control and surface finish.

Hollow Bar Dimensional Range and Tolerances
For full details on finish machined dimensions download our datasheet at our Tech Centre.
Outside diameter range | Dimensional tolerances | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
mm | For the outside diameter | D | For the inside diameter | d | For eccentricity (centre offset) | E | For out-of-straightness | h |
32 < D < 250 | -0/+2% (min. 1 mm) | +0/-2% (min. 1 mm) | 10% | 1 mm/m |
Outside diameter range | Machining allowances | |||
mm | For the outside diameter | For the inside diameter | ||
32 < D < 70 | 1.0 mm | 1.0 mm | ||
70 < D < 132 | 1.0 mm | 1.0 mm | ||
132 < D < 200 | 1.0 mm | 2.0 mm | ||
200< D < 250 | 1.0 mm | 2.0 mm |
Note: The machining allowances are recommended minimum values and are related to short-length mechanical parts (L<2.5 x D, max. 250 mm). Machining allowances for longer parts or special machining procedures can be customised.
Machining Allowances & Production Tolerances
Hollow bar is manufactured in the size ranges most frequently required by mechanical engineering manufacturing companies. However, in the case of hollow bar, the tolerance range for the outside diameter lies in the plus range, and for the inside diameter in the minus range. The wall thickness tolerance is determined by the degree of centre offset; this is due to the effect of the tolerance for the outside and inside diameter, the wall thickness and the centre offset. (See diagram below.)
In the case of mechanical tubing to ASTM A 511, the outside diameter and the wall dimensions generally lie in the centre of the tolerance range. Thus, when ordering product for machining it is important to take into account the differences in the tolerances between the hollow bar and the ASTM A 511 mechanical tubing specifications. In most cases the machining set up is based on centring the outside diameter.



Typical Material Savings
‘Z’ represents the loss of material involved when turning a solid round into a mechanical tube. Here 45 % of the solid round must be removed for this purpose.
The dotted line illustrates the tube length factor ‘D’, which indicates the extra length available for the mechanical parts production as opposed to solid rounds of the same weight.
The example shows a 1.8-fold tube length increase, which means that almost twice as many parts can be made from the tubular weight of material.

Standards & Norms
Hollow bar is typically manufactured acc to mechanical tube standard ASTM A511.
Wall thickness tolerance % | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Outside diameter inches | Ratio of wall thickness to outside diameter | Outside diameter tolerance inches | 0.109” and under | 0.109” to 0.172” incl. | Over 0.172” to 0.203” incl. | Over 0.203” | Cut length in. * |
Under 3 | All wall thicknesses | +/- 0.023 | +/- 16.5 % | +/- 15 % | +/- 14 % | +/- 12.5 % | 3/ 16 |
3 to 5 1/ 2 excl. | All wall thicknesses | +/- 0.031 | +/- 16.5 % | +/- 15 % | +/- 14 % | +/- 12.5 % | 3/ 16 |
5 1/ 2 to 8 excl. | All wall thicknesses | +/- 0.047 | +/- 12.5 % | 3/ 16 | |||
8 to 9 3/ 4 incl. | 5 % and over | +/- 0.047 ** | +/- 12.5 % | 3/ 16 |
(…) Grade designation and / or standard not specific for Hollow Bars.
* DMV 316L with 2.5 - 3% Mo.