Extruded plastic tubes are hollow plastic parts formed utilizing a combination of heat and pressure. Not only cylindrical, extruded plastic tubing is available in a wide variety of shapes including triangles, rectangles, ovals and squares, as well as a wide range of colors due to the vast amount of plastic materials that can be used for tubing.
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Some of the extensive selection of plastic used to manufacture tubing includes polyethylene (PE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polycarbonate. As a result of the variety of extruded plastic tubing available, it can be used in many industries. In industrial manufacturing, plastic tubes are used extensively for equipment parts. In the healthcare industry, plastic tubes are often important parts of testing and surgical equipment. Irrigational and feed tubing in agricultural operations are often made of extruded plastic. Wastewater treatment processes rely heavily on plastic tubing, and automotive industry installs plastic tubes in vehicles for use as fuel lines and other fluid transfer lines as well as for the transmission of compressed gasses. Able to be rigid or flexible, extruded plastic tubing can be manufactured to comply with several industry standards such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Underwriters Laboratories (UL), National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) and Logistics Evaluation (LE) requirements.
The plastic extrusion process for tubing is different than the process for other stock shapes since tubing is a hollow part. While the process has the same beginning as traditional plastic extrusion, it varies at the end of the process. To begin, raw plastic granules, also called pellets or flakes, are fed into a hopper that is placed on top of the closed extruder. Using gravitational pull, the granules are fed into the extruder. The extruder is a closed channel; inside the channel is a screw conveyor that runs the length of the channel and serves to move the granules towards the opposite end. While the granules are moving, they are being sheared and heated through friction. In addition to friction, electric heaters are often built into the extruding channel to assist the screw conveyor in heating the plastic to ensure that the granules are fully molten when they reach the end of the channel. A die secured to the end of the channel is used to form the molten granules into a specific profile as they are squeezed or pushed through as a result of the screw conveyor. In order to form extruded plastic tubing, a pin is attached to the center of the die to create the hollow inside part of the tube. After it is squeezed through the die, the extruded plastic tube is first cooled using cold water, then it is pulled through by a series of conveyors and cut to appropriate lengths.
