Edmonton Valve & Fitting Blog

You want the performance of stainless steel tubing, but the flexibility of hose. Swagelok has the solution: FX Series metal hose.

Swagelok FX hose is specifically designed for high pressure chemical, compressed gas, cryogenic, hydrogen & fuel cell, marine, oil & gas, power, and pulp & paper applications.

Flexible hose with the strength of steel

Meet Swagelok's FX Series metal hose, a double-braided hose series offering 1/4-inch to 2 inch nominal hose sizes with a temperature range of –325 to 1000°F (–200 to 537°C) and working pressure ranges from vacuum to 6000 psig through vacuum to 1122 psig.

It's all corrosion-resistant metal, from the 316L stainless steel annular convoluted core to the 321 stainless steel double braid layers to the 316 stainless steel end connections, which are welded to the 304 stainless steel collar. It can handle high pressure corrosive environments, high-temperature vacuum environments, and is an excellent choice anywhere permeation is undesirable.

Range of end connection options

You have your choice of end connections: Swagelok Tube Adaptors, Swagelok Tube Fittings, female VCO O-ring Face seals, SAE 37-degree (JIC) female swivels, female pipe threads, male pipe threads and tube butt welds. And, as with many other Swagelok hoses, you can get optional hose covers, hose tags and helium leak testing.

Assembly

There's a second kind of flexibility that comes with our hose: the flexibility to have our certified technicians provide and assemble components to meet your exacting requirements. We can provide high-volume tube bending and swaging, orbital welding, custom hose cutting and end connection selection.

Get the literature or get in touch

Good news: In one step you can get the Swagelok hose and flexible tubing catalogue, Hose Quick Look poster, and six product test reports. The catalogue contains detailed information on Swagelok's FX Series metal hose starting on page 11:

In a hurry or have a question? Please click here to get in touch.

With a few quick clicks you too can get the top downloads of 2017

In 2017 our customers downloaded hundreds of PDFs off of our website, check out the most popular downloads of the year below and get your own copies.

Edmonton Valve wants you to have all the information you need to keep your fluid systems running efficiently and leak-free. We often use our blog to point readers to good resources. Here are the five that got the most clicks in 2017. If any are new to you, it's worth a click to see what you can get.

Equipment rentals 

There's no substitute for having the right tools for the job. But there is a substitute for investing a lot of money in tool purchases. Just rent what you need from Edmonton Valve & Fitting. Orbital welding systems, hydraulic swaging units, tube coning tools — we have all that and more, usually available by the day, week or month. We can teach you how to use the equipment too.

And if you think that you might use a particular tool often enough to justify a purchase, we can provide loaner equipment for evaluation before you make the investment. 

Special alloys

Ordinary materials won't work for some applications. You need components made of special alloys. But choosing the right alloy can be a daunting task. Fortunately, Edmonton Valve can help streamline the process of finding, specifying, and ordering special alloy products. We have the industry knowledge, metallurgy expertise, quality reputation, layers of support, and skills in both design and manufacturing to assist with your job requirements. 

Custom solutions

We have a world of knowledge about Swagelok parts. Who better, then, to help you combine them for the optimum solution for your challenges?

Maybe you have an idea, a sketch on a sketch on a napkin, or just a recent conversation to go on. We can enhance your design ideas with 3D drawings compatible with your engineering drawing system. Then we can provide and assemble all the components to meet your exacting requirements. That includes high-volume tube bending and swaging, orbital welding, custom hose cutting and end connection selection. We offer custom component, assembly, and enclosure fabrication, including grab sample panels, enhanced oil recovery options, changeover manifolds and gas seal panels.

All of our custom solutions services are backed by the Swagelok Limited Lifetime Warranty. 

Service and training

High-quality work requires proper training by expert instructors. Swagelok’s training and education programs provide valuable and practical tools for keeping up with the latest fluid system technologies. We can train you in person at our own classroom or at your site. We also have training videos and online classes you can access at your own convenience.

We can cover the basics of tube bending and fitting, or teach you advanced techniques. We have three different courses on sample systems that will help you diagnose, troubleshoot and eliminate sampling system design flaws. You can tap into our video library as well for topics from tube bending assembly to regulator applications.

Ask us

When you haven't found an answer to your specific question, or don't have much time to look, just ask. We're very pleased to find our "ask" page among the most popular. Just tell us who you are and what you need, and we'll get back to you by email. Remember: We keep your information private and we never spam.

Additional resources

• Forget Trial And Error; Take Our Tube Bending Course
• Seal Support Simplified: Call Edmonton Valve & Fitting
• Dielectric Fittings Prevent Shocking Results

In a hurry or have a question? Please click here to get in touch - we respond fast! Or call 780.819.2665.

Simplified design means less weight, fewer leak paths and lower maintenance

The VN01 double block and bleed valve leans out processes previously required for the job. To find out more about the benefits of this space-saving valve follow the link below to get your copy of our VN01 quick look guide and Block & Bleed catalogue.

Having the right tool for the job can relieve a lot of headaches. With Swagelok's VN01 process valve, you'll have save on space, save on weight, and still get top performance for at high temperatures and high pressures. The added capability is due to all-needle-valve construction.

The VN01 provides double block and bleed isolation for process piping, and is right at home in the petrochemical environment. You could get a double block and bleed option in a multi valve, but with the VN01 you have it in a single, lighter, compact unit with a single CRN number. A lighter unit means less strain on your piping system and a reduced need for structural support. That's especially important when you need to protect your components from vibration.

The simplified design means you also have fewer leak paths and reduced installation costs.

Yes, we have 'em

You may already be aware that these kinds of valves exist, but you may not realize that Swagelok makes them. And Edmonton Valve & Fitting has standard configurations in stock.

But if you want to explore your options, the VN01 valve has several. You can get it with a standard or 3/4-inch male NPT inlet, or a 3/4-inch pipe weld. For the outlet, you have a choice of a standard half-inch female NPT fitting, but other options are available including a flange. There also are optional gauge ports.

If you could benefit from a lighter, more compact double block and bleed isolation valve, contact us through our website or by calling 780-437-0640. We'll be glad to give you more details.

Additional resources

• New! Easy to Navigate Reference Book for Swagelok Valves
• 'Now, where did I see that post about valves...'
• Your Checklist for Tubing Quality

Major new edition now available in either softcover or as a free download

Looking for your own copy of the new and revised Swagelok Tube Fitter's Manual, look no further! If you are in our sales and service area, request a copy of the new print edition here. PDF work better for you? Request the online PDF version.

Since its debut in 1963, the Swagelok Tube Fitter's Manual has been the industry standard. It's the result of extensive field research and laboratory studies conducted by Swagelok's research and development engineers, plus feedback we've received over the years from our customers. The original author, Joe Callahan Jr., went on to become the president of Swagelok.

As technology has progressed, Swagelok updated the manual in the '70s, '80s and '90s. Now a new 6th edition is being made available, both in a softcover version and as a free Internet download.

The latest edition now includes information on metallurgy, innovations in product design, advanced manufacturing processes, and selecting tube fittings for severe service requirements.

More than fittings

The Swagelok Tube Fitter’s Manual is intended to help you avoid many of the problems encountered on tubing installation projects. The manual provides a quick reference to technically accurate design and installation information.

While the manual is primarily about Swagelok tube fittings, it also covers important aspects of tubing, valves, troubleshooting and pressure ratings. To take just one example, a tube fitting can do its job properly only if the tubing material is softer than the fitting material. So you wouldn't want to put stainless steel tubing in a brass fitting. Tubing wall thickness, proper handling, and proper layout are all covered in the manual as well.

There's also an entire chapter on the hidden cost of leakage.

The new edition maintains the manual’s respected, iconic status as “the Tube Fitter’s Bible” while positioning it as the premier multimedia reference source on tube fittings for Swagelok customers in the 21st century. To expand on the wealth of information in the manual, we added a QR code that links to important supplemental information, such as catalogues, publications, or videos.

Revised and updated

Swagelok Company has updated and revised the content five times in the past 51 years, and now the entire new 321-page edition is available both as a free softcover version or in a downloadable PDF format. The 10 chapters (and three appendices) cover the Swagelok tube fitting itself, plus tubing specification and ordering, tubing and tube fitting handling and installation, severe service, troubleshooting, special purpose fittings, testing and evaluation of tube fitting performance, pipe threads, pressure ratings, the hidden costs of leakage, valves, and more. 

As Callahan wrote in the original preface, "The well-known Swagelok two-ferrule fitting is the best tube fitting we know how to manufacture; however, proper installation and use of high quality tubing will go far to ensure leak-free connections."

No trouble

Any complex system will have its share of challenges. The manual has a whole chapter on troubleshooting to keep frustrations to a minimum.

If the tube will not go into the fitting, for instance, there could be any of a half-dozen causes from burrs on the end to simply using the wrong size tubing. If the system leaks, there is a good chance the fitting was not installed properly. The manual explains what to look for when the leak happens after initial installation, after reassembly following maintenance, and under high temperatures.

If you'd like to get this classic, all you have to do is to ask for it. You will get a better understanding of how Swagelok tube fittings work, and how to get the best performance out of them.

Additional resources

• Round 2: FAQs from Edmonton Valve's Customer Service Desk
• Swagelok Orifice Fittings – What do you know about flow control?
• 5 Best Practices for Swagelok Quick-Connects

In a hurry or have a question? Please click here to get in touch - we respond fast! Or call 780.437.0640.