Customized Plastic Tubing & Hose Assemblies to Address Specific Application Needs
Jan. 30, 2007
Related To: NewAge Industries Inc
Now available from NewAge Industries is custom tubing, hose, and assemblies made to exact specifications. Customized products address each individual application’s requirements and can result in less waste, labor, and cost than stocked tubing and hose. Types of customization available from NewAge Industries include hose assemblies, thermal tube bonding, special compounding and colors, coiling, heat-formed parts, adjusted wall dimensions, overbraiding and jacketing, printing, cut-to-length pieces, slitting, hole punching, and packaging. “Some of our stock products started as custom requests,” notes David Schwass, Director of Sales. “We had a call for braided polyurethane in black to help hide dirt in an industrial application. That hose, Urebrade®, is now stocked in black and is actually lower priced than the original transparent version.” Customers request specialized products for a number of reasons. One example is saving the cost and time of labor when an item such as a hose assembly can arrive ready to install. Assemblies are available with all sorts of hose – stainless steel overbraided PTFE, reinforced PVC and silicone, polyurethane – and with a variety of fittings, including sanitary styles, attached by clamps or crimped-on collars for permanency. Another case for customized products is space restrictions, and one of two custom products – thermal tube bonding or heat-formed shapes – can often address the issue. Hot Bond®, NewAge Industries’ thermal bonding process, joins together two or more tubes of similar material (PVC to PVC, nylon to nylon, etc.). This can result in reduced complexity, easier installation, and a neater appearance. Heat-formed shapes also tackle the subject of limited space. Curves and elbows often fit into a confined area better than tubing with fittings and clamps. They can also eliminate common problems like kinking. Other custom options such as custom compounding (blending additives into the raw plastic material) permit the fine tuning of plastics to meet special performance requirements. The need for low temperature flexibility, improved elasticity, U.V. stabilization, or decreased tack can be addressed. Overbraiding and jacketing protect tubing and hose from abrasion, heat, kinking, or chemical attack. Services like printing and striping identify tubing and hose with information such as sizes, performance capabilities and limitations, company recognition, or part numbers. Cut-to-length pieces can reduce labor costs for the customer, as the cutting can often be done at the end of the production line immediately following manufacture. This automated procedure results in consistent lengths, too. Packaging can also be an important consideration. Orders may be shipped in boxes of a specified size, or by weight, or have a certain number of cut pieces bagged together and then boxed.