TPi September 2013

Plast ic pipes and tubes

early in the development of chemically synthesised mouldable materials it was the practice of science writers to use “plastics” as an adjective: plastics deformation, plastics adhesion. The intention was to separate the phenomenal breakthrough material from the homely word conferred on it at birth. Plastic suggests simple pliability. Plastics were about to open up a whole new world. That journalistic protocol of the bakelite era has faded away in our time. Flexibility – or bendability; or, yes, plasticity – is still valued by the creators, designers and fabricators of tube products, and always will be. but the wares reviewed in this section of Tube Products International amply demonstrate that light years separate us from a period when the term “plastic tube” called to mind a drinking straw.

Photograph: Molecor Tecnología, SL, Spain