Last updated: 13 October 2026.
Quick answer. China's register returns 169 pipe-fittings records. Seventy-eight govern plastics and seventeen ductile iron; only about thirty govern a metal fitting. No compulsory standard governs a fitting: both mandatory records are superseded. The steel butt-welding pair GB/T 12459-2025 and GB/T 13401-2025 has been in force since 1 May 2026.
China's register lists 169 pipe-fittings standards, but most cover plastic and ductile iron. Here are the steel fitting numbers a 2026 order should name.
Every standard number, title, status, issue date and effective date on this page comes from the national standards register's title search, retrieved on 13 October 2026 and listed at the end. The register publishes titles and dates only, and the English titles here are this page's translations.
This is a register-reading page. It sets out what China's national standards register contains for pipe fittings, which of those records govern a fitting you are buying and which are about something else that happens to carry the same word, and which standard numbers a buyer placing an order for 2026 or 2027 delivery should be naming.
It does not tell you which factory to use, it does not quote a price, a minimum order or a lead time, and it does not restate the technical content of any standard. The register publishes titles, numbers, dates and status; it does not publish the text, and neither does this page.
The register's title search is a string match. It does not know what a pipe fitting is. Searching the two Chinese characters for pipe fittings, 管件, returns 169 records, of which 101 are in force, 60 are superseded and 8 are pending.
Classifying all 169 by what their titles actually govern gives the split below. The grouping is ours, produced by a stated first-match rule over the returned titles, and it is the single most useful thing on this page:
| What the 169 records the term for "pipe fittings" returns actually govern | Records | In force | Superseded | Pending |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plastics pipe and fittings — PE, PVC-U, PP, PVDF, PFA and PE-X systems, including their welding, density and stability tests named in the same title | 78 | 48 | 26 | 4 |
| Ductile-iron pipe, fittings and accessories, including linings and coatings | 17 | 9 | 6 | 2 |
| Pipe systems named for one industry or service — oil and gas, gas distribution, water supply, drainage, refrigeration, nuclear, marine, sprinkler irrigation | 14 | 10 | 3 | 1 |
| Lined, composite and fibre-reinforced pipe and fittings — plastic-lined steel, aluminium-lined plastic, carbon-fibre tube | 11 | 10 | 1 | 0 |
| Press-fit fittings — the stainless press-joint (卡压) and ring-press (环压) systems | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 |
| Steel butt-welding fittings (对焊管件) | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
| Grey and cast-iron pipe and fittings | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| Test, measurement, coating and inspection methods for fittings | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
| Forged socket-weld, threaded and copper fittings | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| Stainless, titanium and other metal welded pipe and fittings | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Glass equipment, pipe and fittings | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Steel flange fittings (法兰管件) | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
The bottom of that column is where a metal buyer's problem sits. A company sourcing a machined or forged fitting finds that 78 of the 169 records — nearly half — are about plastic pipe systems, and another 17 are ductile-iron mains. Adding the five metal-fitting blocks in bold gives 30 records: 8 butt-welding, 7 forged socket-weld and threaded, 9 press-fit, 4 stainless and titanium welded pipe, and 2 flange fittings.
That is not a defect in the register. It is what the Chinese pipe market is made of. But it means the list a buyer sees after searching "pipe fittings" is not the list a fitting order needs, and the standard numbers a supplier quotes will sit in the 30, not in the 169.
This is the ninth time this site has documented the same behaviour in this register, after the spring washers inside a spring search, the conveyor-belt cord inside a wire-rope search, the surgical implants inside a forging search, the ceramic materials inside a nitriding search, the bricks inside a sintering search, and the hoists inside a gear search. The rule is always the same: search the word, then read every title before trusting the list.
The pipe-fittings family sits in a single title search. The register reported 169 records and all 169 were retrieved:
| Search term (Chinese) | English meaning | Records reported | Retrieved | In force | Superseded | Pending | Shortfall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 管件 | pipe fitting | 169 | 169 | 101 | 60 | 8 | 0 |
There is no shortfall on this term. That matters because a term that returns several hundred records is capped by the platform's paging limit, and the count you see is then not the count you read. Adjacent families on this site have been capped — one family reported 438 and returned 200, another reported 298 and returned 200. At 169, this one came back whole, so the split above is a complete count and not a sample.
Inside the metal block the largest single decision a drawing has to make is the joining route, because butt-welded, forged socket-welded and press-jointed fittings sit under different standard numbers.
| Standard | What its title says it covers | Nature | Status | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB/T 12459-2025 | Steel butt-welding fittings — types and parameters | Recommended | In force | 2026-05-01 |
| GB/T 13401-2025 | Steel butt-welding fittings — technical specification | Recommended | In force | 2026-05-01 |
| GB/T 14383-2021 | Forged socket-welding and threaded fittings | Recommended | In force | 2021-10-01 |
| GB/T 19228.1-2024 | Stainless-steel press-joint fitting assemblies, Part 1: press-joint fittings | Recommended | In force | 2025-04-01 |
| GB/T 29168.2-2024 | Oil and gas industries — bends, fittings and flanges for pipeline transport systems, Part 2: fittings | Recommended | In force | 2025-01-01 |
| GB/T 17185-2012 | Steel flange fittings | Recommended | In force | 2013-10-01 |
| GB/T 27891-2011 | Carbon-steel press-joint fittings | Recommended | In force | 2012-06-01 |
| GB/T 26120-2010 | Low-pressure stainless-steel threaded fittings | Recommended | In force | 2011-10-01 |
| GB/T 33926-2017 | Stainless-steel ring-press fittings | Recommended | In force | 2018-02-01 |
| GB/T 27684-2011 | Titanium and titanium-alloy seamless and welded fittings | Recommended | In force | 2012-10-01 |
| GB/T 26002-2025 | Stainless-steel corrugated flexible hose and fittings for gas transmission | Recommended | In force | 2025-10-01 |
Our reading. The butt-welding layer is the one that moved. GB/T 12459-2025 and GB/T 13401-2025 were both issued on 31 October 2025 and both took effect on 1 May 2026, and both replace a 2017 edition that is now superseded. The register still carries the replaced years — GB/T 12459-1990, GB/T 12459-2005 and GB/T 12459-2017 all sit in the family as superseded records, as do GB/T 13401-1992, GB/T 13401-2005 and GB/T 13401-2017.
So a drawing that cites the butt-welding pair by number alone resolves to four searchable years for GB/T 12459 and four for GB/T 13401, of which exactly one pair governs the order. Write the year. This is the same failure mode this site documented for the spring family, where eight core documents shared one effective date and the superseded editions remained searchable.
There is no analogous change in the forged route: GB/T 14383-2021 is the current edition and superseded a 2008 edition.
Within the 169 records the register's search returns, exactly two are mandatory standards, and both are superseded:
| Standard | Nature | Status | What its title says it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB 15558.2-1995 | Mandatory | Superseded | Buried polyethylene fittings for gas |
| GB 9644-1988 | Mandatory | Superseded | Unplasticised PVC drinking-water pipe and fittings — extraction method and permitted values for lead, tin, cadmium and mercury |
Our reading. The other 167 records are recommended standards. That is the same shape this site has found in the gear family, the forging family, the powder-metallurgy family, the springs family and the welding family, and it has a practical consequence for a buyer: there is no compulsory Chinese national standard that a pipe fitting has to satisfy in order to be made, sold or shipped. Conformity is a contract question. What you can do is name the standard you want in the purchase order — which is what the next section is for.
Note what the two mandatory records are about. Both regulate a plastic pipe in a potable-water or gas application, not a metal fitting on a process line. The compulsory layer in this family is about the fluid and the material, not about the joint geometry.
Our reading, from the register alone:
This page is a reading of register titles and dates, not an interpretation of any standard's technical content, and it is not legal or engineering advice. The register is the authority for what is current; confirm the status of any number directly before you write it into a contract.
Related on this site: valves for the other half of a piping package, fasteners for the bolting a flanged joint needs, materials for how a fitting's alloy is specified, welding for the process behind a butt-welded joint, GB standards for how the recommended and mandatory layers differ, and heat treatment for what happens to a forged fitting before it ships.
Two, as a pair: GB/T 12459-2025 covers types and parameters, and GB/T 13401-2025 covers the technical specification. Both were issued on 31 October 2025 and took effect on 1 May 2026, and both replace a 2017 edition that the register now lists as superseded. Write the year into the purchase order, because the 1990, 2005 and 2017 editions are all still searchable.
Not in force. Within the 169 records the register's pipe-fittings search returns, exactly two are mandatory standards — GB 15558.2-1995 on buried polyethylene fittings for gas, and GB 9644-1988 on lead, tin, cadmium and mercury extraction from unplasticised PVC drinking-water pipe and fittings — and both are superseded. The other 167 records are recommended.
Because the register's search is a string match on the title. Of the 169 records returned, 78 govern plastics pipe and fittings — PE, PVC-U, PP, PVDF, PFA and PE-X systems — and 17 govern ductile-iron pipe, fittings and accessories. Only about 30 records govern a metal fitting: 8 butt-welding, 7 forged socket-weld and threaded, 9 press-fit, 4 stainless and titanium welded pipe, and 2 flange fittings.
Eight records in the family are issued but not yet in force. The earliest is GB/T 12772-2026 on flexible-joint cast-iron drainage pipe, fittings and accessories, effective 1 December 2026. The rest take effect in February and March 2027, including GB/T 13295-2026 on ductile-iron pipe for water and gas, GB/T 32488-2026 on cement-mortar lining and sealing coats, and GB/T 48258-2026 on industrial PVDF pipe and fittings.
GB/T 14383-2021, on forged socket-welding and threaded fittings, effective 1 October 2021. It superseded a 2008 edition. For the press-joint route instead, GB/T 19228.1-2024 covers stainless-steel press-joint fitting assemblies, and GB/T 33926-2017 covers stainless-steel ring-press fittings.
All sources retrieved 13 October 2026. This page is an independent reading of the sources listed; the official pages themselves are the specification.
| Fact used on this page | Source |
|---|---|
| S1 — The pipe-fittings term reports 169 records with 169 retrieved, 101 in force, 60 superseded and 8 pending; the codes, titles, nature, state, issue dates and effective dates of all 169 records, including GB/T 12459-2025, GB/T 13401-2025, GB/T 12459-2017, GB/T 13401-2017, GB/T 12459-2005, GB/T 13401-2005, GB/T 12459-1990, GB/T 13401-1992, GB/T 14383-2021, GB/T 14383-2008, GB/T 19228.1-2024, GB/T 29168.2-2024, GB/T 29168.4-2024, GB/T 17185-2012, GB/T 27891-2011, GB/T 26120-2010, GB/T 33926-2017, GB/T 27684-2011, GB/T 26002-2025, GB/T 28897-2021, GB/T 41494-2022, GB/T 12772-2016, GB/T 12772-2026, GB/T 13295-2026, GB/T 32488-2026, GB/T 48035-2026, GB/T 18474-2026, GB/T 48258-2026, GB/T 23682-2026, GB/T 48044.3-2026, GB/T 13401-2025, GB 15558.2-1995 and GB 9644-1988, with the states, nature and dates cited above | National standards register, title search for the Chinese term for pipe fittings (retrieved 2026-10-13) https://std.samr.gov.cn/gb/search/gbQueryPage |
| S2 — The stated first-match grouping of the 169 returned titles into the twelve categories and the counts shown for each category, and the 30-record metal-fitting subtotal | This page's own classification of the 169 register titles retrieved from the source above; the rule is stated in the text and is not a register output https://std.samr.gov.cn/gb/search/gbQueryPage |