The pricing of poylurethane tubing
Overview of the article series:
- Polyurethane resistance against environmental influences
- Working pressure and bursting pressure
- Flexibility – the minimum bending radius
- Pricing of polyurethane tubing
Polyurethane tubing often gets depicted as a low-tech component. However, someone who knows the background behind the manufacturing process would not make a statement like this so easy. The tubing is often a valuable part of production machines, cars, and other complex systems. Hence, failures can lead to significant damage in many cases. Because of that, the quality of polyurethane tubing is crucial for the application it gets used for. As with most things, it is not different with tubing made of polyurethane either: Quality comes with its price tag. Cheaper alternatives can get found in no time, but it is quite common that they become more expensive in the long term:
- If the tubing’s form is not on point, an application with plug-in-connectors can become torture.
- If the tolerances for the tubing’s measurements get exceeded, it can become too large for the planned installation or, on the contrary, too small to achieve the desired flow rates.
- If the wall thickness is not exactly how it should be, its pressure resistance can vary significantly. That can have a fatal impact on the whole system.
Hence, the production of polyurethane tubing is not as simple as some might think. Because of that, there are several factors that can influence the pricing of the product to a significant extent
How does the pricing of polyurethane tubing come together?
The material: Not all tubing is created equal. There are countless variants for different purposes. Thereby, special variants like antistatic tubing, flame retardant tubing, or anti-kink tubing require more effort in their production than standard products. That starts with the composition of the used polyurethane. Factors like the hardness, additives, or the desired color grading play a role as well.
The Dimension: A tubing’s dimension is the most important factor regarding the required material for production. Due to that, larger diameters are usually more expensive than smaller ones. The wall thickness is of high importance as well. With a thinner wall, it is possible to save raw material and thereby produce the tubing cheaper. However, as mentioned in part 2 of this series, working pressure and bursting pressure, that decreases the tubing’s stability.
Additional manufacturing steps: For special variants of polyurethane tubing, additional manufacturing steps are necessary oftentimes. Quite obviously, that requires human resources and is thereby more expensive.
The Lot size: Economies of scale apply to the production of polyurethane tubing as well. That means, the more of the same variant gets produced, the more economical the process runs (usually). This effect often transfers to purchase prices by volume scales.
Pricing of polyurethane tubing – conclusion
Trying to save money while purchasing polyurethane tubing can become expensive in the long run. The components are often part of complex systems that can come to a standstill in case of failure in the worst case. However, with some background knowledge, it is possible to save money during procurement. If the material and the dimension are chosen precisely for the end application, and the order gets placed for long-term requirements, the price of polyurethane tubing can get reduced without sacrificing any quality. Hence, in consultation with the manufacturer of your choice, it should not be a problem to find the right solution for your purpose. Thus, sustainably reducing cost. Get in touch now! Contact