1. U.S. Polymeric Flexible Hoseand Tubing
Industry
Flexible hose and tubing are old and established products, and their manufacture and sale has
become a moderately large and quite broad–based sector of the United States economy. This
study covers flexible hose/tubing made from polymeric materials (that is, what we commonly
call plastics or rubber materials), as contrasted with rigid piping and rigid metal tubing (e.g.,
aluminum and copper tubing for automobiles and refrigerators), the latter is a subset of the
piping industry. (Rigid polymeric pipe and tubing is covered at length in a recent companion
BCC Research report, PLS053A, The U.S. Market for Plastic Pipe.)
The broad base of the U.S. polymeric hose and tubing industry is illustrated both by
the many different materials, both elastomeric and non–elastomeric, that are used to make
hose and tubing, and also by the many different markets that are served by these materials and
products. The terms tube and tubing are also different from pipe and piping. All pipes are
tubes; however, because rigid tubing is smaller in diameter and usually quite thin, it is
differentiated from piping. We also differentiate between flexible hose and tubing. A tube is
usually defined as a long cylindrical body with a hollow center that is used to convey fluids, and
a hose is generally considered to be a flexible tube. However, in flexible products we
differentiate hose and tubing by also considering tubing to be a simpler product constructed
from a single material, while hose is a more complex structure that usually consists of three
layers: the tube itself at the center, some type of external reinforcement, and a protective
covering material of some type.
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Published: May 2013
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Next, engine changes are constantly being made in the very important automotive under–the–
hood hose and tubing category. Newer overhead cam four–valve engines tend to run hotter
than older push rod designs, and several of the most common elastomers, especially nitrile
rubber, cannot be used at the temperatures now occurring under the hood; other materials
must be substituted. Newer engine types, primarily hybrids at this time with electric cars still
relatively rare, will have some effect on the use of polymeric hose and tubing. For example,

2. electric motors need few or no hoses and tubing but since today’s hybrid vehicles still have a
gasoline engine, hose and tubing should be needed in good quantities through our forecast
period.
Another continuing change is in motor gasoline formulations, with lowered aromatics content
and increasing use of oxygenates as octane enhancers and anti–pollution additives. Legislation
calls for the addition of oxygenates to motor fuel with increasing quantities to meet ongoing
Congressional mandates: today and for the foreseeable future this additive will be ethanol. Fuel
lines must not only withstand new fuels and additives, but also cannot allow them to permeate
through the hose or tube wall into the atmosphere.
The ethanol situation is interesting, and it may affect the markets for flexible hose and tubing.
Ethanol is water soluble, and carmakers are learning what effects it has on hoses (and engine
performance). To date it has been found that ethanol has little effect on automotive fuel lines,
at least at the current 10% maximum inclusion rate. However, farm–state Congressmen and
Senators are constantly pushing to get this maximum increased and have passed legislation
mandating that 36 billion gallons of ethanol be blended into U.S. motor fuels by 2022. The EPA,
calculating that this amount of ethanol could not be blended without increasing the ethanol
level to 15%, ruled in January 2010 that the maximum level could be raised to 15%, but only for
vehicles built since 2007. The 15% level is being fought by both the automotive and petroleum
refining industries, as well as hose and tubing suppliers that claim that this level will damage
engines, make them run poorly, and damage parts such as hoses. This controversy is ongoing.
Another major automotive industry change in the mid–1990s was that of primary auto air
conditioner refrigerant, from CFC–12 (Freon–12) to HFC–134a. This necessitated changes in the
hose and tubing used; this change was made successfully since HFC–134a operates under
similar conditions to CFC–12 and major compressor and other component redesigns were not
required. Now there is a push by global warming activists to also ban HFCs, which do not
deplete the ozone layer but do increase global warming. The European Union has banned HFC–
134a in all cars in that area starting with model year 2011, and car makers and producers of
auto air conditioners scrambled to find another replacement. The most promising replacement
is a new hydrofluoroolefin called HFO–1234yf, which has almost no global warming potential.
The affects this new refrigerant has on automotive air conditioning hoses remains to be seen.
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