Plast ic pipes
and tubes
Photograph: Molecor Tecnología, SL, Spain
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.
