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Nylon Air Tubing
Nylon Air Tubing                   Black Tubing     Blue Tubing                 Green Tubing     Orange Tubing                 Red Tubing     Yellow Tubing                 White Tubing                                     O.D. Nom. In. I.D. Nom. In. Min. Bend Radius In. 5/32 .098 0.512 5/16 .236 1.890 1/8 .086 0.591 3/16 0.137 0.787 1/4 .180 1.181 3/8 .275 2.362 1/2 .376 2.953
	Chemical Compatibility Chart (PDF)

Ask yourself whether or not you’re using the right kind of material when you select pneumatic air hoses. There are plenty of options available these days, so how can you be sure that you’ve picked the right one? You might invest a ton of money into a project only to find out you were buying the wrong stuff the whole time.

Now ask yourself whether you’d ever want to have to be the person who has to fit the bill for such a costly mistake.

Nylon is a good choice for general-purpose pneumatic applications. The great thing about it is the fact that it works in almost every circumstance. Regardless of what kind of equipment you’re delivering compressed air to, nylon air tubing will more than likely work.

Although nylon is not as flexible as polyurethane it is much stronger and has a higher pressure rating. Due to its strength, nylon tubing can be manufactured with thinner walls while still maintaining high-pressure ratings. This walled tubing allows for a higher flow rating for a given outside diameter.

If you need more tubing to get your supply stocks back up or install a new run, then feel free to explore the full SMC Pneumatics catalog. We’ve compiled several other advantages as well, which should help make this vital purchasing decision a bit less of a chore.

Other Advantages of Nylon Air Tubing

In addition to its strength, Nylon is heat and light stabilized. Nylon’s combination of high-pressure rating, high flow rate, flexibility, and toughness make it the ideal choice for most compressed air systems. Have you ever seen a length of tubing break down because of what it was exposed to? Many types of material will get rubbery or mushy over time. If they’re not changed out, then they’ll eventually harden up before cracking.

Nobody wants this to happen at their workshop, so many engineers insist on using nylon instead of other comparable substances. Consider the following, for example. Certain grades of nylon are also approved for use in air brake systems under SAE J844. That alone should be more than enough to illustrate just how flexible it is, both figuratively and literally.

If you ever need to run air tubes inside of a difficult area, then you might find that nylon fits the bill perfectly. This flexibility was ensured to be the original engineers who designed the material. While it might sound weird to design something like this, nylon is purely synthetic. It doesn’t come from plant material the way rubber does.

Nylon’s History Makes it Suitable for Use in Air Tubing

Nylon is also known as Polyamide and was the first engineered thermoplastic. Nylon compounds are classified by the number of carbon molecules that they contain. Common compounds used in the tubing are Nylon-11 and Nylon-12.

Nylon is hygroscopic by nature, meaning that it tends to absorb moisture. The compounds used in compressed air tubing generally keep the absorption rate to under 1 percent. Surge pressure must be under the maximum operating pressure. If exceeding that value, then the fitting may be damaged and the tubing may burst. Under that, however, it should continue to serve quite admirably until reaching its end of life.

The values of the maximum operation pressure are at a temperature of 20°C. Always make sure to refer to the burst pressure characteristics curve whenever you’re dealing with other temperatures. Avoid abnormal temperature rise which may burst the tubing. The values of the minimum bending radii are at a temperature of 20°C, and the O.D. variable rate 10 percent max. In case that operating temperature is higher than 20°C, O.D. variable rate may be over 10 percent even if the bending radius is within the specified range.

Technicians and engineers who are looking for more concrete numbers may also want to consider the following additional specifications in case they feel their chosen use case could theoretically cause any damage to the piece of tubing they’re looking at:

Specifications

• Temp. Range: –4°F to 140°F
• Maximum Operating Pressure: 220 PSI (68°F)
• Hardness: Shore D 70

In a majority of situations, these specifications shouldn’t be a problem at all. Best of all, you should be able to find tubes in a number of different standard diameters. Those who need particularly large ones can request 1/2-inch tubes while engineers looking to connect air compressors to rather small tools can instead look for tubes as small as 5/32 of a single inch.

Color-coding Your Runs

Vendors have long found that nylon is very easy to change the color of. This can be done simply by modifying a few pigments. Coloring nylon air tubes in no way compromise their integrity, so you can opt to color-code different lines and make it easy to find what each tube connects to. For instance, you may want all tubes that terminate at a particular piece of equipment to have red lines while another tool might have yellow or green ones. This can make disassembling an air circuit for later repair a breeze.

Finding Nylon Air Tubing that’s Right for Your Business

Small business owners might want to standardize around one common size of tubing so that they don’t have to keep multiple diameters in their workshops. Technical departments at larger enterprise-level companies could have hundreds of different pieces of equipment to support, and that means they have to keep extra rolls around just in case something needs to be reworked. Traveling entertainment companies might have even more specific needs.

However, the needs of your company always come first. Contact us today even if you’re not entirely sure of what kind of equipment would be most suitable for the kind of equipment you’re using. Our experienced team of representatives will work with you to find the perfect supply of nylon air tubes. While it might seem like a challenge, you’ll be reaping the benefits of a great fitting piece of equipment in no time.