Clad plates, clad pipes, fittings, flanges and tube sheets — a corrosion-resistant alloy bonded onto a carbon or alloy steel base, so the process side gets the alloy and the steel carries the load.
Cladding is a metallurgical process that bonds a layer of one metal onto a base metal of a different type, to improve properties such as corrosion or wear resistance. We supply clad plates, clad pipes, clad fittings, overlay flanges and clad tube sheets with stainless steel, duplex, nickel alloy, titanium and copper-nickel cladding on carbon steel and chromium-molybdenum alloy steel.
The clad layer faces the process fluid and gives the vessel or pipe the chemistry of the alloy; the steel backing gives it strength at a fraction of the cost of solid alloy. Products are supplied to ASTM A263, A264, A265, B898 and API 5LD, with the bond proved by shear testing and ultrasonic examination and reported on a mill test certificate to EN 10204 Type 3.1 or 3.2. When your project needs independent verification, inspection by your nominated agency is carried out before dispatch.
How the alloy is joined to the base decides the thickness it can be, the metals it can join and the shapes it suits. Each drawing shows the process in section.
Passes cleaned metal layers through heavy rollers under high pressure to physically bond the sheets together. The pack is heated first, so pressure and heat produce a diffusion bond across the whole plate.
Best for: large stainless and nickel-alloy clad plates in thin and medium thicknesses.
Uses a controlled chemical explosion to drive one metal plate into another at high speed, creating a solid-state weld without a heat-affected zone. The collision jet scours both surfaces and leaves a wavy, fully metallurgical bond.
Best for: thick plates, tube sheets, and metals that cannot be fusion welded, such as titanium on steel.
Utilises a high-powered laser beam to melt metal powder or wire onto a substrate, offering precise control and minimal heat distortion. Dilution with the base is low, so a thin layer already has the full alloy chemistry.
Best for: wear-resistant hardfacing, shafts, seats and the repair of worn components.
Deposits a corrosion-resistant alloy layer over a carbon steel surface using traditional welding methods such as GTAW or GMAW, or strip electrodes by SAW and ESW. Two or more layers control dilution so the surface meets the alloy chemistry.
Best for: nozzles, flanges, pipe bores, vessel internals and local areas of any shape.
A clad plate is specified by three things: the base metal and its thickness, the cladding alloy and its thickness, and the standard the bond is tested to. The clad face is the process side; the base is sized for the design pressure as if the cladding were not there.
Plate is where cladding starts, but a clad vessel also needs clad nozzles, flanges and tube sheets, and a clad pipeline needs clad pipe and fittings. We supply the set.
Roll or explosion bonded plate for vessel shells, heads, columns and tanks, in standard and cut-to-size formats.
Line pipe with a corrosion-resistant alloy bore, for sour gas, injection and subsea flowlines.
Elbows, tees and reducers formed from clad plate or overlaid in the bore, to match the clad pipe.
Weld neck flanges and long weld neck nozzles with the alloy weld-overlaid on the bore and gasket face.
Thick tube sheets and channel covers with alloy or titanium on the tube side, for heat exchangers and condensers.
The cladding alloy is chosen for the process fluid; the base steel for the pressure, temperature and code. These are the combinations asked for most.
| Cladding alloy | UNS | Clad plate standard | Usual base steel | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stainless steel | ||||
| SS 304L | S30403 | A264 | A516 Gr. 70 | General chemical, water and food-plant vessels. |
| SS 316L | S31603 | A264 | A516 Gr. 70 | Chloride-bearing process, pharmaceutical and coastal plants. |
| SS 317L | S31703 | A264 | A516 Gr. 70 | Flue-gas desulphurisation, pulp and paper. |
| SS 321 / 347 | S32100 / S34700 | A264 | A387 Gr. 11 / 22 | Hydroprocessing reactors and high-temperature refinery vessels. |
| SS 410S / 405 | S41008 / S40500 | A263 | A387 Gr. 11 / 22 | Crude and vacuum columns in sulphur-bearing service. |
| SS 904L | N08904 | A264 | A516 Gr. 70 | Sulphuric and phosphoric acid plant. |
| Duplex stainless steel | ||||
| Duplex 2205 | S32205 | A264 | A516 Gr. 70 | Chloride service with higher strength; pressure vessels and tanks. |
| Nickel alloys | ||||
| Inconel 625 | N06625 | A265 | A516 Gr. 70 · API 5L | Sour gas, seawater and flue gas; clad pipe and overlay. |
| Incoloy 825 | N08825 | A265 | A516 Gr. 70 · API 5L | Sour service, sulphuric and phosphoric acid. |
| Monel 400 | N04400 | A265 | A516 Gr. 70 | Hydrofluoric acid, HF alkylation and seawater. |
| Hastelloy C276 | N10276 | A265 | A516 Gr. 70 | Wet chlorine, mixed acids and incinerator scrubbers. |
| Nickel 200 | N02200 | A265 | A516 Gr. 70 | Caustic soda evaporators and concentrators. |
| Titanium & copper alloys | ||||
| Titanium Gr. 1 / 2 | R50250 / R50400 | B898 | A516 Gr. 70 | Chlor-alkali, PTA plants, desalination and seawater condensers. |
| Copper-Nickel 90/10 | C70600 | B432 | A516 Gr. 70 | Seawater tube sheets, water boxes and marine heat exchangers. |
| Copper | C11000 / C10200 | B432 | Carbon steel | Electrical conductors, bimetal strip and coinage blanks. |
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| Base steel | Used for |
|---|---|
| A516 Gr. 60 / 70 | Pressure-vessel carbon steel; the standard backing plate |
| A387 Gr. 11 / 12 / 22 | Cr-Mo steel for hydrogen service and high temperature |
| A537 Cl. 1 / 2 | Higher-strength vessel steel for thick walls |
| A36 · A283 Gr. C | Tanks and structures at low pressure |
| API 5L X52 – X65 | Line pipe for clad and lined pipelines |
| A105 · A350 LF2 | Forged flanges and nozzles for weld overlay |
These are the combinations asked for most, not the limit of what we supply. Zirconium, tantalum, aluminium and other alloy claddings are sourced against your specification. For solid alloy plate and pipe, see Materials & Grades.
Each ASTM clad plate specification covers one family of cladding metal. All of them call for a bond shear test, and all of them take the base metal from its own plate specification.
| Standard | Covers | What it calls for |
|---|---|---|
| ASTM A263 | Stainless chromium steel-clad plate (400 series, such as 405 and 410S) | Bond shear strength 140 MPa min; bend tests; chemistry of the cladding; base to its own specification. |
| ASTM A264 | Stainless chromium-nickel steel-clad plate (300 series and duplex) | As A263; the most common clad plate specification for process vessels. |
| ASTM A265 | Nickel and nickel-base alloy-clad steel plate (Inconel, Incoloy, Monel, Hastelloy, Nickel 200) | Bond shear strength 140 MPa min; bend tests; cladding chemistry to the ASTM B specification of the alloy. |
| ASTM B898 | Reactive and refractory metal clad plate (titanium, zirconium, tantalum, niobium) | Explosion-bonded plate; shear strength 140 MPa min; ultrasonic examination of the full bond area. |
| ASTM B432 | Copper and copper-alloy clad steel plate | Bond test and cladding chemistry; used for copper-nickel tube sheets and electrical products. |
| ASTM A578 | Straight-beam ultrasonic examination of plain and clad steel plates | Grid or full scan of the bond; acceptance Level A, B or C, or a supplementary level, stated on the order. |
| API 5LD | CRA clad or lined steel pipe | Metallurgically clad or mechanically lined line pipe; base pipe to API 5L, CRA layer to its own specification. |
| ASME VIII Div. 1, Part UCL | Pressure vessels made of clad plate or with corrosion-resistant lining | Design rules for clad vessels, including when the cladding may be credited for strength. |
| NACE MR0175 / ISO 15156 | Materials for sour oil and gas service | Limits on the alloy, hardness and condition of the cladding and overlay in sour service. |
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Clad plate is also supplied to EN 10204 inspection documents and to project specifications that add impact tests on the base, corrosion tests on the cladding or simulated post-weld heat treatment of the bond.
A clad product is only as good as the bond between its two metals. These tests are made on every lot or arranged when your order calls for them.
Anywhere a thick section must resist corrosion or wear on one face only, cladding gives the alloy surface at the cost of a steel body.
Protecting industrial pipes and pressure vessels against harsh chemicals and natural gas. Clad reactors, separators and sour-gas flowlines put nickel alloy or stainless on the wetted side of a carbon steel shell.
Explosion-clad tube sheets and channel covers carry titanium, copper-nickel or stainless on the tube side, matched to the tubes, with a thick steel body for the pressure.
Refinery crude columns, hydroprocessing reactors and chemical storage tanks, where 410S, 347 or 316L cladding on carbon or Cr-Mo steel resists the process at a fraction of solid alloy cost.
Titanium-clad evaporator shells and copper-nickel clad water boxes for desalination plants, power-station condensers and offshore cooling systems.
Repairing worn aerospace and automotive components. Laser and weld cladding rebuild shafts, seats, turbine parts and dies with a hard or corrosion-resistant layer, restoring size with little distortion.
Manufacturing layered coins like US quarters using different metal combinations. Roll-bonded copper-nickel on copper strip also makes electrical contacts and thermostatic bimetal.
A starting point for choosing the process and the product form. The cladding alloy follows the fluid; the base follows the code.
| Situation | Typical choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Vessel shells and heads in corrosive service | Roll-bonded clad plate | Large plates with uniform, thin cladding at the lowest cost per square metre. |
| Titanium, zirconium or tantalum on steel | Explosion-bonded clad plate | These metals cannot be fusion welded to steel; the solid-state bond has no heat-affected zone. |
| Tube sheets and thick blocks | Explosion-bonded | Bonds thick cladding to very thick bases, and the bond survives drilling and tube expansion. |
| Nozzles, flanges and pipe bores | Weld overlay | Applied locally to any shape; the overlay is continuous with the clad plate at the joints. |
| Worn shafts, seats and dies | Laser cladding | Low heat input and precise placement rebuild the part with minimal distortion. |
| Sour-gas flowlines and risers | Clad or lined pipe, API 5LD | Inconel 625 or 825 on the bore of carbon steel line pipe, with matching clad fittings. |
| Hydrogen service at high temperature | SS 347 on A387 Cr-Mo | Stabilised stainless resists the process; the Cr-Mo base resists hydrogen attack. |
| Low-pressure tanks and large flat areas | Roll-bonded 304L / 316L | The thinnest economical cladding on an inexpensive base. |
| Small quantity or thick alloy wall needed | Solid alloy plate | Below a certain thickness or area, solid plate is simpler and cheaper than cladding. |
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This guide is for orientation only. The choice of cladding alloy, process and thickness depends on the full service conditions and the governing design code, and remains the responsibility of the design engineer.
Cladding is a metallurgical process that bonds a layer of one metal onto a base metal of a different type. The clad layer is a solid metal sheet or weld deposit, usually 1.5 mm or more thick, joined to the base across its whole area so the two behave as one plate. A coating or plating is a thin surface film, typically a fraction of a millimetre, that is applied to the surface rather than bonded through it, and it offers no structural contribution.
Cost and strength. The alloy is only needed on the surface that touches the process fluid, so a clad plate puts a thin layer of alloy there and uses carbon or alloy steel for the rest of the thickness. The alloy layer is typically 10 to 20 percent of the total thickness, so a thick vessel wall costs far less than solid alloy while the steel backing carries the pressure load. See the anatomy of a clad plate.
Roll bonding passes cleaned metal layers through heavy rollers under high pressure and heat so the sheets bond together; it suits large plates in stainless and nickel alloys. Explosion bonding uses a controlled explosion to drive one plate into another at high speed, creating a solid-state weld without a heat-affected zone; it suits thick plates and metals that cannot be fusion welded, such as titanium on steel. Weld overlay deposits a corrosion-resistant alloy over a steel surface using welding processes such as GTAW or GMAW, and suits nozzles, flanges, pipe bores and local areas. Laser cladding melts powder or wire onto the surface with a laser for precise, low-distortion deposits and repairs. See the techniques.
The clad plate standards require a shear test, in which the clad layer is pushed off a small specimen; ASTM A263, A264, A265 and B898 all require a minimum bond shear strength of 140 MPa (20 ksi). The whole bond area is also examined ultrasonically to ASTM A578, which maps any unbonded areas, and bend tests show that the bond survives forming. Results are reported on the mill test certificate. See bond testing.
Yes. Clad plate is cut, rolled and pressed like ordinary plate, with the clad side protected from contamination by carbon steel. Welding is done in two stages: the clad layer is stripped back along the joint, the steel backing is welded with carbon steel consumables, and the clad side is then restored with a weld overlay in the matching alloy, so the corrosion-resistant surface is continuous across the joint.
Every lot is supplied with a mill test certificate to EN 10204 Type 3.1 or 3.2 that reports the chemistry and mechanical properties of the base metal and the clad metal, the bond shear strength and the ultrasonic examination of the bond, together with any additional tests ordered, such as the chemistry of the overlay at a specified depth, ferrite content or corrosion tests. When third-party inspection is called for, the agency's inspection release note is included. More on our quality & inspection page.
Solid alloy plate for the thin sections, pipe and fittings for the nozzles, and flanges to close the joints — all from one supplier with one set of documents.
Send the product form, base metal, cladding alloy, thicknesses and size. We will confirm the process and availability and quote, with the bond testing, mill test certificate and inspection you require.
