Tesco Steel & Engineering forges sockolets — the olet family's small-bore specialist: an integrally reinforced 90° branch outlet whose contoured base is butt-welded to the run pipe and whose top end is a socket dimensioned to ASME B16.11 — the branch pipe is cut square, inserted, backed off for the root gap, and fillet-welded: no bevel, no alignment jig. The reinforcement the code demands around the opening is forged into the body per MSS SP-97, so no pad is needed. We make them in NPS ⅛″ to 6″ (DN 6–150), Classes 3000 and 6000, reducing and size-on-size, in every material grade on this site: carbon steel A105, LTCS LF2, the chrome-moly ladder, stainless, duplex, the nickel alloys and copper-nickel — the 90/10 pair photographed below shipped against a marine order. Each piece is laser-marked with grade, sizes, class and heat number and certified to EN 10204 3.1/3.2. Full dimension tables in the datasheet below. ISO 9001:2015, made in Mumbai, India — exported to 50+ countries.
MSS SP-97 Body · ASME B16.11 SocketSocket Weld Outlet · SOLNPS ⅛″–6″ · Class 3000 / 6000Reducing & Size-on-SizeCarbon Steel to Copper-NickelLaser-Marked · Heat-TraceableEN 10204 3.1 / 3.2 · ISO 9001:2015
90/10 Copper-Nickel (UNS C70600) Sockolets, 6″ Run × 2″ Branch, Class 3000 — Laser-Marked per ASME B16.11
What is a Sockolet?
The small-bore branch specialist. A sockolet (also written socket weld outlet, or SOL) is a forged, integrally reinforced fitting that makes a 90° branch on a run pipe: its contoured base is butt-welded over a cut opening in the header, and its top is a socket per ASME B16.11 — the branch pipe is inserted square-cut, backed off for the root gap, and fillet-welded. Reinforcement is forged in per MSS SP-97 — no pad, no saddle. We forge them NPS ⅛″–6″, Classes 3000 and 6000, reducing and size-on-size, in every grade from A105 to copper-nickel, laser-marked and certified to EN 10204 3.1/3.2.
Also searched as: socket weld outlet, SOL, socket-o-let, socket weld branch outlet, B16.11 outlet, olet SW — all this page's product. Related pages: the weldolet (the butt-weld sibling, live on this site), the flangeolet, socket weld flanges — the same joint at the flange bench — and the material pages behind every grade we forge: carbon steel, stainless, duplex, Monel, Inconel, Hastelloy and copper-nickel.
Two Standards, One Fitting
Standard
What It Owns on a Sockolet
MSS SP-97
The body — integral reinforcement contour, pressure-temperature basis, marking, materials cross-references
ASME B16.11
The socket — bore, depth and wall matched to the class, so branch pipe fits the outlet exactly as it fits a coupling
ASME B31.3 / B31.1
The line — branch reinforcement logic, and the socket-weld joint's own service limits
A105 / A350 / A182 / B564
The metal — each grade certified to its own forging standard, exactly as this site's flanges are
That split is why the laser marking cites both numbers — the pieces photographed on this page read “#3000 ASME B16.11” on an MSS SP-97 body, and the certificate names them all.
The socket aligns the pipe; the fit is the fixture — square-cut pipe, insert, back off, fillet-weld. On a rack of instrument taps that is hours of fit-up a bevel-and-butt joint would cost, saved at every branch.
Reinforcement Forged In
The code's compensation for the cut opening is in the body profile per MSS SP-97 — no pad, no saddle, no field-fabricated reinforcement, and every surface inspectable.
Class-Matched Sockets
Class 3000 pairs with Sch 80/XS branch pipe, Class 6000 with Sch 160 — the B16.11 correspondence that keeps socket, pipe wall and fillet weld in proportion.
The Whole Grade Bench, Small Bore
A105 to 90/10 copper-nickel from the flange forge — the branch fitting inherits the line's metallurgy, its PMI and its paperwork, on one purchase order.
Specification Notes — Getting Sockolets Right
Three honest notes.The root gap is not optional: pipe bottomed hard in the socket cracks the fillet root as the weld shrinks — back off before welding, and say how the gap was controlled when the inspector asks. The socket joint has its own envelope: severe cyclic duty, crevice-sensitive services and RT-required branch welds read the weldolet instead — the same limits that govern socket-weld flanges. And state class with schedule: Class 3000 belongs with Sch 80/XS branch pipe, Class 6000 with Sch 160 — naming them together on the enquiry surfaces mismatches before anything is forged.
How Our Sockolets Are Manufactured
1
Material — certified forgings in the ordered grade, heat treated as the grade demands — normalised LF2, N&T chrome-moly, solution-annealed stainless and duplex — with furnace records retained; heat-number transfer at the first operation.
2
Body machining — the MSS SP-97 profile turned to size: height, base OD and the reinforcement contour the fitting exists for.
3
Socket machining — bore and depth cut to ASME B16.11 for the ordered class, square and concentric, so the branch pipe seats true and the fillet has its land.
4
Saddle contouring — the base machined to the stated run range, curved to the header OD or flat-based for large runs, so the groove weld starts from metal-to-metal fit.
5
Testing & marking — PMI on alloy grades, MPI/DPT/UT to the ordered scope, dimensions checked against B16.11 and the datasheet, then laser marking: grade, sizes, class, heat number.
6
Certification & packing — EN 10204 3.1 MTC (3.2 witnessed on request) tying every piece to its heat; sockets and saddles protected, packed sea-worthy.
Where Sockolets Are Used
The small-bore branches every plant is covered in: instrument and gauge taps off process headers, vents and drains at every low and high point, chemical injection and sampling connections, steam-trap takeoffs, and the marine and offshore small bore — like the copper-nickel pair above — where seawater systems branch in the line's own alloy. Production pieces below; the marking on each is real:
A105 Sockolet, 3″ × 6″ Class 3000 — Heat TS4611The B16.11 Socket — Bore, Depth and Land, Machined to Class
Sockolet Dimensions — Class 3000 Quick Reference
How to read the table: height A is measured installed, from the run-pipe outside surface to the socket face; B is the outside diameter of the outlet base; C is the socket bore — the number to check against your branch pipe OD; D is the through-bore. Common Class 3000 reducing sizes below — the full datasheet (PDF) carries all 15 Class 3000 sizes, the Class 6000 table and the size-on-size table with unit weights.
Branch NPS
Height A (mm)
Base OD B (mm)
Socket Bore C (mm)
Bore D (mm)
Weight (kg)
½″
25.40
35.72
23.02
15.80
0.14
¾″
26.99
43.66
29.37
20.93
0.16
1″
33.34
50.80
36.51
26.64
0.27
1½″
34.93
72.23
50.80
40.89
0.45
2″
38.10
88.11
65.09
52.50
0.73
3″
44.45
122.24
93.66
77.93
1.72
4″
47.63
151.61
120.65
102.26
3.29
6″
69.85
219.08
169.86
154.05
6.58
Class 6000 runs ½″ to 2″ for high-pressure small-bore work; size-on-size outlets carry their own table. Non-standard heights and contours are machined to drawing with dimensions confirmed on the order.
How to Specify & Order a Sockolet
Six elements — class and branch schedule belong together:
1
Run × branch — e.g. 6″ × 2″, or the run range one outlet should cover across several headers.
2
Pressure class — 3000 or 6000, chosen with the branch schedule it pairs to (Sch 80/XS or Sch 160).
3
Material grade, exactly — A105, A350 LF2, A182 F316L dual-certified, C70600... as your specification writes it.
4
Design code where it helps — B31.3 or B31.1 confirms documentation and the socket joint's service limits.
5
Certification & NDT — EN 10204 3.1 (our standard) / 3.2 witnessed; MPI, DPT, UT or NACE MR0175 scope if extended.
Example: “Sockolet, 6″ × 2″, Class 3000, UNS C70600 90/10 copper-nickel, B31.3, EN 10204 3.1, DPT on socket and saddle — 2 pieces.” Quotations normally within 24 hours with price, unit weights and delivery — common carbon steel and stainless sizes usually from stock.
Sockolets — Frequently Asked Questions
What is a sockolet (socket weld outlet)?
A sockolet is a forged, integrally reinforced branch outlet fitting for small-bore 90° branches: its contoured base is butt-welded onto the run (header) pipe over a cut opening, and its top end is a socket dimensioned to ASME B16.11 — the branch pipe slips in and is fillet-welded, no bevel required. The reinforcement the piping code demands around a branch opening is forged into the body per MSS SP-97, so no reinforcing pad is needed. The trade also calls it a socket weld outlet, socket-o-let or SOL. We forge sockolets in NPS ⅛" to 6", pressure Classes 3000 and 6000, reducing and size-on-size, in every material grade on this site — the pieces photographed here run from black A105 to bright 90/10 copper-nickel — each laser-marked and certified to EN 10204 3.1/3.2.
How is a sockolet installed — and why does the root gap matter?
Two welds, one habit. The base weld is the same as a weldolet's: cut the opening in the header using the outlet bore as the template, seat the contoured saddle, and run a full-penetration groove weld around the base. The branch connection is where the sockolet earns its keep on small bore: the pipe end is cut square — no bevel — inserted until it bottoms in the socket, then backed off roughly 1.5 mm (1/16") before the fillet weld is made. That small withdrawal is the root gap, and it is not optional: a pipe welded hard against the socket bottom has nowhere to expand as the weld cools and contracts, and the fillet root cracks. Good fitters mark the insertion depth, pull back, and weld; good inspectors ask how the gap was controlled. The socket makes the joint self-jigging — alignment comes from the fit, not from a fixture — which is exactly why small-bore branches are socket-welded in the first place.
What standards cover sockolets?
Two standards divide the fitting between them, and it helps to know which owns what. MSS SP-97 — Integrally Reinforced Forged Branch Outlet Fittings — owns the body: the reinforcement contour, the pressure-temperature basis, marking and the materials cross-references. ASME B16.11 — Forged Fittings, Socket-Welding and Threaded — owns the socket: bore, depth and wall dimensions matched to the pressure class, so the branch pipe fits a sockolet's socket exactly as it fits a B16.11 coupling's. The branch reinforcement logic that lets the fitting replace a calculated pad comes from the piping code — ASME B31.3 for process, B31.1 for power. Materials are certified to their own standards: A105, A350 LF2, A182 for alloy, stainless and duplex, B564 for nickel alloys. That is why our laser marking cites both numbers — the pieces in the photographs read '#3000 ASME B16.11' beside the MSS SP-97 body they sit on.
What do Class 3000 and Class 6000 mean on a sockolet?
Socket-weld fittings are class-rated rather than schedule-rated, and the classes pair with branch pipe walls: Class 3000 sockolets suit Sch 80/XS branch pipe, Class 6000 suit Sch 160 — the correspondence B16.11 practice is built around. The class sets the socket dimensions and the body wall, so class and branch schedule are chosen together: a Class 3000 socket around a Sch 160 pipe leaves the fitting the weak partner, while a Class 6000 socket on Sch 40 pipe wastes money and welds oddly, the socket wall dwarfing the pipe. Our stock runs Class 3000 across the full ⅛"–6" range and Class 6000 in the small-bore sizes where high-pressure instrument and injection work actually orders it — ½" to 2". State branch schedule and class together on the enquiry and mismatches surface before anything is forged.
What sizes do sockolets come in — reducing and size-on-size?
Branch sizes run NPS ⅛" through 6" (DN 6 to DN 150) — this is the small-bore member of the olet family, and the vast majority of orders sit between ½" and 2". Reducing outlets, where the branch is smaller than the run, are the everyday configuration: a 6" × 2" copper-nickel pair from a recent order is photographed on this page. Size-on-size outlets put an equal-size branch on the run — a 3" socket outlet on a 3" header — and carry their own dimension table in the datasheet. As with every olet, the base is contoured to a stated run range: one 2" outlet curved for 6"–8" headers will not seat on a 24" one, so the enquiry states run × branch. Above 6" branch, the conversation moves to the weldolet — butt-welded branches are the right answer at sizes where socket welding stops being convenient.
What materials are sockolets available in?
Every grade this site forges. Carbon steel A105 for general process and utility work — the black 3" × 6" Class 3000 piece photographed here; A350 LF2 for impact-tested low-temperature duty; chrome-moly A182 F11, F22, F5, F9 and F91 for steam and hot hydrogen; stainless F304/F304L and F316/F316L with dual certification where heats qualify, plus the stabilised F321 and F347; duplex F51 and super duplex F53/F55; and the nickel and copper bench — Monel, Inconel, Incoloy, Hastelloy and copper-nickel, like the bright 90/10 C70600 pair in the hero photograph, laser-marked for a marine order. Small-bore branches follow the line's metallurgy exactly as the flanges do, and the material pages across this site carry each grade's full story. Chemistry per heat, PMI on alloy grades, EN 10204 3.1/3.2 on every lot, NACE MR0175 compliance on request.
Sockolet, weldolet or threadolet — which outlet fits the job?
Same forged, integrally reinforced body — the branch-end connection decides. A sockolet ends in a B16.11 socket: square-cut pipe, self-jigging fit, one fillet weld — the small-bore convenience that makes it the default for instrument taps, vents, drains and chemical injection points up to NPS 2. A weldolet ends in a butt-weld bevel: the universal answer, the only choice above small bore, and the preference wherever a specification wants full-penetration branch welds throughout — its page is live on this site. A threadolet ends in a tapered thread for connections that must break by hand, at the price of a thread in the pressure envelope. The quick rule most piping classes already encode: butt-weld the process lines, socket-weld the small bore, thread only where a wrench must open it. State connection, run × branch and class or schedule, and the outlet picks itself.
When is a sockolet the wrong choice — the honest limits?
Three situations send the order elsewhere, and piping codes flag all of them. Severe cyclic duty: a fillet-welded socket joint carries a higher stress intensification than a butt weld, and B31.3 restricts socket welding where cycling is severe — vibrating or fatigue-driven branches read the weldolet instead. Crevice-sensitive service: the gap between pipe and socket is a built-in crevice, and services where crevice corrosion governs — some stainless duties in chlorides, high-purity systems that cannot tolerate trapped liquid — specify butt welds for exactly that reason. And radiography-required welds: a fillet cannot be meaningfully radiographed, so lines whose specification demands RT of branch welds are butt-welded lines. None of this is a defect of the fitting — it is the socket-weld joint's own envelope, the same one that governs socket-weld flanges and couplings. Inside that envelope, on the world's instrument and drain connections, the sockolet is the standard answer.
Is 'Sockolet' a brand name?
Like Weldolet, yes by origin — the -olet family names began as Bonney Forge trademarks, and decades of daily use have made them the piping trade's generic vocabulary worldwide. This page uses the word the way requisitions and site engineers do; the generic term is socket weld outlet, and what we manufacture and certify are integrally reinforced forged branch outlet fittings to MSS SP-97 with socket ends dimensioned to ASME B16.11 — the wording our certificates carry, dimensionally interchangeable with any outlet made to the same standards. If your procurement documents write 'socket weld outlet', 'SOL', 'socket-o-let' or simply 'olet, SW', they mean this product; name the standards and the paperwork follows.
What is marked on each sockolet?
Manufacturer, material grade, size, pressure class, the socket standard and the heat number — laser-marked on the machined body. The photographs on this page are production pieces and read exactly that way: the A105 outlet carries 'A105 SOCKOLET 3" X 6" #3000' with its heat TS4611, and the copper-nickel pair reads 'UNS C70600 SOCKOLET SW' with run and branch sizes, wall thicknesses, '#3000 ASME B16.11' and the heat beside it. The marking is the traceability chain's visible end — heat number to EN 10204 certificate, certificate to mill heat, PMI confirming the alloy matches the mark before dispatch. Project-specific marking — tag numbers, PO references, paint codes — is applied to order and recorded on the documents.
What testing and certification come with sockolets?
The forging's full paper trail, scaled to a small fitting without being thinned by it. Chemistry and mechanicals per heat on the EN 10204 3.1 MTC — 3.2 witnessed on request — with heat-treatment condition and furnace records where the grade demands them: normalised LF2, N&T chrome-moly, solution-annealed stainless and duplex. PMI verifies every alloy piece. NDT to the ordered scope: MPI or DPT of machined surfaces and the socket, UT of the forging where specified, hardness testing for sour service, with NACE MR0175 / ISO 15156 compliance available on request. Dimensional inspection checks height, base OD, socket bore and depth against B16.11 and the datasheet tables. Third-party witness or review is routine on project orders — state the agency and scope on the enquiry and it is priced in from the start.
Where can I find sockolet dimensions?
In the datasheet on this page — a three-page PDF with the complete tables: Class 3000 reducing outlets in 15 sizes from ⅛" to 6", Class 6000 in the six small-bore sizes from ½" to 2", and the size-on-size Class 3000 table, each listing height A, base OD B, socket bore C, through-bore D, dimension E and unit weight, plus installation guidance and the materials summary. The page above reproduces the common Class 3000 sizes for quick reference. Two reading notes: height A is measured installed, from the run-pipe outside surface to the socket face, so stack-ups use it directly; and socket bore C is the number to check against your branch pipe OD — it is the fit that makes the joint self-jigging. Non-standard heights and contours are machined to drawing with dimensions confirmed on the order.
What details are needed to get an accurate sockolet quotation?
Six elements plus commercial terms: (1) run × branch size — e.g. 6" × 2", or the run range one outlet should cover; (2) pressure class — 3000 or 6000, chosen with the branch schedule it pairs to; (3) material grade, exactly as your specification writes it — A105, A350 LF2, F316L dual-certified, C70600, and so on; (4) the design code where it helps — B31.3 or B31.1; (5) certification and NDT — EN 10204 3.1 (our standard) or 3.2 witnessed, plus MPI/DPT/UT or NACE scope where extended; (6) quantity and destination. Attach the line list or isometric extract if one exists — instrument and drain schedules read fastest straight off the drawing. Quotations normally return within 24 hours with price, unit weights and delivery; the common carbon steel and stainless sizes usually quote from stock.
Who manufactures sockolets in India?
Tesco Steel & Engineering is an ISO 9001:2015 certified manufacturer based in Mumbai, India, forging integrally reinforced branch outlet fittings to MSS SP-97 with socket ends dimensioned to ASME B16.11 — sockolets (socket weld outlets) in NPS ⅛" to 6", Classes 3000 and 6000, reducing and size-on-size, contoured to the customer's run range. Materials span our whole forge: carbon steel A105, LTCS A350 LF2, chrome-moly A182 F11 through F91, stainless 304/316/321/347 families, duplex F51/F53/F55, and the nickel and copper alloys through to 90/10 copper-nickel — with PMI verification, laser marking tying each piece to its heat, and EN 10204 3.1/3.2 certification on every lot. The same works supplies the complete olet family — weldolets, threadolets, elbolets, nipolets, latrolets, sweepolets and flangeolets — alongside the flange ranges this site is built around. Exported to more than 50 countries; datasheet with full dimension tables downloadable on this page.
