Temperature and Material Quality

Steel loses strength as it heats. A pipe attachment that carries 5,000 kg at ambient temperature does not carry 5,000 kg at 500 °C, and the software accounts for this before it selects anything.

Two distinct things happen, and confusing them is a common source of misunderstanding.

Two separate checks

1. Is this material allowed at this temperature?

A yes-or-no question. Each material quality has an upper limit beyond which it is simply not used. Carbon steel above its limit is not a carbon steel component carrying less load — it is the wrong material.

If the combination is not allowed, the software says so. No amount of load reduction fixes it; you change the quality.

2. How much capacity does it have at this temperature?

A question of degree, asked only once the first has been answered. Within its permitted range, a material’s capacity falls as temperature rises, and the software corrects the design load accordingly.

These two checks are independent. A capacity factor existing at a given temperature does not mean the combination is permitted — the limits of use are set by the first check.

Material qualities

The software works with these families:

Quality	Typical service
Low Temp Carbon Steel	below ambient, typically up to −20 °C
Carbon Steel	ambient to moderate, typically 20 °C – 385/400 °C
Alloy Steel 16Mo3 (0.5Mo)	moderate to high, typically 385/400 °C – 500 °C
Alloy Steel 13CrMo4-5 (1Cr-0.5Mo)	high, typically 500 °C – 540 °C
Alloy Steel 10CrMo9-10 (2.25Cr)	very high, typically 540 °C – 600 °C
Stainless Steel TP-304	high, corrosive
Stainless Steel TP-316	high, corrosive
Carbon Steel with stainless lining	moderate, corrosive contact
Custom	user-defined

Pipe Attachment Quality on the support datasheet refers to the attachment that contacts the pipe, not to the pipe itself. It normally matches or is compatible with the pipe material, but it is entered separately because the attachment is a Pihasa product with its own certification, and because most pipe attachments are mechanically clamped, not welded.

If you leave the temperature blank

The software assigns a default based on the material quality, on the reasoning that a quality was specified for a reason. Selecting 13CrMo4-5 implies a high-temperature service; leaving the temperature blank does not make the service ambient.

The defaults are conservative, but they are assumptions. Enter the design temperature explicitly on anything above ambient. The datasheet records the value used, so you can always see which one applied.

Insulation

Insulation Thickness does not affect load capacity. It affects geometry: the clamp has to reach past the insulation to the pipe, which drives take-outs and clamp heights, and it affects which attachment heights are standard.

A large insulation thickness can push an attachment out of its standard configuration and into a special, with consequences for cost and lead time. The software handles this automatically but the datasheet will show the non-standard dimension.