Acrylic resins can be thermoformed, or molded by heat, into usable plastic products like tubing. Most thermoformed acrylic resins are near-transparent, which makes them ideal for creating clear tubing. Read More…
Leading Manufacturers
NewAge® Industries, Inc.
Southampton, PA | 800-506-3924A leading manufacturer and fabricator of flexible plastic tubing and hose, we produce and stock large quantities of a wide variety of materials, including PVC, polyurethane, silicone, nylon and many more.
Absolute Custom Extrusions, Inc.
Milwaukee, WI | 414-332-8133At Absolute Custom Extrusions, we specialize in plastic tubing, while providing custom plastic extrusions and profiles. Products include distributor tubes, hot or cold water tubes, automotive tubing, medical tubing, shipping tubes and golf club tubes.
GSH Industries, Inc.
Cleveland, OH | 440-238-3009GSH is a manufacturer of plastic, extruded, nylon, polycarbonate and polyethylene tubing. We serve a variety of industries with our products, including automotive, consumer, electrical and marine.
Petro Extrusion Technologies, Inc.
Middlesex, NJ | 800-229-3338Petro specializes in plastic tubing, offering custom extruded tubing, coiling & angle cutting. Our clear & color plastic tubing is available in Polycarbonate, Acrylic & PE-PP-Nylon.
International Polymer Engineering
Tempe, AZ | 877-410-3265IPE manufactures ePTFE tubes, rods, and sheets in a wide range of sizes and a wide variety of material porosities to fit any customer requirements. We also utilize our 20 years of experience with custom extrusion, project analysis, creativity, and current manufacturing practices to provide the best possible solution to your design challenges. We are committed to understanding your application and will tailor a development program to your time frame, costs, and project needs.
Polytec Plastics, Inc.
St. Charles, IL | 630-584-8282If you are in search of quality plastic tubing then you have found the company that can meet your needs. We have a wide variety of stock plastic tubing items and our solutions are very reliable.
Acrylic Tube - Petro Extrusion Technologies, Inc.Acrylic tubing does not age noticeably; an acrylic tube is likely to be broken by accident before it wears out naturally. It is not significantly affected or altered by sunlight and can remain highly functional under variable conditions of heat, cold, and exposure to moisture; it will not warp, crack or corrode under such conditions.
In applications where clear tubing is required, acrylic tubing outperforms glass in terms of its economy and functionality. Glass tubing can be twice as heavy, less insulated and much more vulnerable to impact. Cast acrylic tubing in particular demonstrates exceptional qualities of tensile strength.
Acrylic tubes are used in toys, surgical devices, museum displays, product design, laboratory equipment, home furnishings, lighting and in countless other applications. Marine, commercial, food and beverage, manufacturing, utility, architecture, fine arts and biomedical industries make extensive use of acrylic tubes.
Acrylic tubes are easy to fabricate as well as being cost-effective tubing solutions. There are two main types of acrylic tubing: extruded and cell cast. During the extrusion process, a hopper above an extrusion machine is filled with raw acrylic resin. Gravity feeds the raw material into a conveyance channel.
A long screw within the channel turns and forces the raw material toward a die. A die is a shaped tool that is used to shape a material. As the raw material approaches the die, friction caused by the turning screw combined with heat from electric heat sources along the channel melt the raw material. The molten material is then forced into the die, where it takes its tube shape.
It emerges as new acrylic tubing, at which point it can be cut and either prepared for shipment or sent for additional processing. Other methods of acrylic tubing fabrication also exist, though extrusion is the most efficient and effective method. Cell casting, for example, is the process in which molten plastic is poured into a mold.
It is by definition a non-continuous process, allowing only for the creation of tubing that is as long as the molding cell. Extrusion is continuous and always creates uniform products, both of which are major advantages over other processes.