What Is the Use of Rubber Tubing?

Rubber tubing is used in a variety of applications.

Rubber tubing has many applications, ranging from under the hood of your car to inside a coffee maker in your kitchen. Rubber tubing's versatility and flexibility lends itself to carrying liquids, solids or as a sheath securely wrapping another tube or tool handle. Manufactured in various diameters and wall (the width of the tube's rubber) thickness, rubber tube can be used to carry either almost microscopic amounts or tremendous volumes of material great distances.

Inner tubes

One of the first uses for rubber tubing was inner tubes for bicycle and carriage tires. Eventually, cars, trucks, airplanes and different types of heavy equipment also have inner-tube tires. Inner tubes are still common on bicycle tires and some types of older automobile tires. Airplanes also use inner-tube tires because the combination of the hard treaded tire with a flexible interior tube allows the plane's wheels to absorb tremendous pressure when landing.

Water

Garden hoses are a common example of rubber tubes carrying water. Other examples are fire hoses and water lines inside of a car's engine. Rubber is preferred in automobile cooling systems because it is very resistant to the constant high heat the engine generates. Other synthetic materials such as neoprene cannot stand up to the pressure and heat that rubber can.

Oil

Rubber tubes also carry oil and lubricants in many engines and production machinery. Rubber is resistant to oil's natural tendency to break down and dissolve petroleum-based plastics. There are other composite materials and metal tubes that can do the job, but they are not as flexible or economical as a quick rubber tube installation.

Hydraulic

Rubber tubing is an integral component with mobile hydraulic circuits. Containing and moving high-pressure hydraulic fluid requires rubber's strength and also flexibility. Moving hydraulically actuated devices must stay connected to the hydraulic fluid pump.

Pneumatic

Just like fluid hydraulic circuits, gas pneumatic machines use rubber tubing to carry high-pressure air from a compressor to the tool. Pneumatics can expand and contract the feed line carrying the air at a tremendous rate, often more than once a second as in a jackhammer. Rubber tubing's flexibility and elasticity allows it to conform to the work load without fatigue or failure.

References

• New Age Industries: Latex Rubber Tubing
• Swagelok: Rubber Hose