Pipe and tube

Overview

Plastic pipes (Figs. 13.1, 13.2, and 1.3) and tubings (Fig. 13.3) started commercial production during the late 1930s. There are different definitions that are usually associated with the different industries (plumbing, gas transmission lines, beverages, medical, mining, and so on). A popular definition of a pipe is that it is rigid, hollow, long and larger in diameter than tubes. Tubings are basically the same except they are flexible and smaller in diameter, up to 0.13 mm (0.5 in) or with thin walls up to 15 cm (6 in). In this review, it really does not matter which definition is used because the extrusion line does not make a distinction. In this chapter, ‘pipe’ will be used to identify pipe or tube unless a specific situation exists for one or the other, such as collapsible tubes (usually not called pipe) [1, 88, 218, 327, 341, 358, 415].