Advantages of Nylon Tube As Fuel Lines And Its Testing Methods In Automotive Industries

Nylon Tubes are fast replacing rubber hoses and steel pipes as fuel lines in auto industries. This is because of cleaner and smoother internal surface of tubing. Even installation of Nylon Tube as fuel line is much easy. It has enough capability to resist various automotive fuels like diesel and petrol and can withstand more pressure and temperature. Moreover, these tubes are available in different colors and sizes. It can also be easily shaped into permanent bends and angles quickly.

In automotive industries, OEMs – particularly cars and trucks manufacturers – all over the globe, generally adopt various test methods to determine the performance of Nylon pipe when used as fuel lines. The most common testing techniques adopted are;

1. Abrasion Resistant Test: In order to assess the abrasion resistance performance of tube, two different methods are used. The first technique is wheel based method as per IS 09352. In this method the loss in weight defines the tubing abrasion resistance performance. The second method has been particularly developed for Renault vehicles (and now adopted by some other vehicle manufacturers also). In this method the two specimen samples of tubing are used during testing. One specimen is kept fixed while the other is kept mobile. The thickness of both the pieces of tubes is measured at the end to determine the abrasion resistance performance.

2. Burst Pressure Test: In order to determine a safe and optimum working

Pressure of Nylon Tube as fuel line, burst pressure test is considered as an important test in industries. This pressure test determines the bursting capacity of tubing. Normally, the burst pressure test is carried out at room temperature-(usually at 23 °C) and also at elevated temperature (usually at 120 °C). Silicon oil is used applying 10 to 300 bar oil pressure for different sizes of Nylon tube. The outer diameter is constantly measured while gradually increasing the pressure.

3. Charpy Test: This test is inexpensive and fast to determine the impact resistance behavior of polyamide tubings as a fuel line.

4. Cold Impact Test: Cold impact test is also known as Drop impact test where cold chamber is used. Samples of Nylon Tubes are placed in the chamber equipped with fixture-tube holders. Various impact standards are adopted by different testing bodies and OEMs.

Nylon tubing as fuel line has,

• Excellent resistance against heat and outstanding mechanical properties.

• Good flexibility and cold impact resistance.

• High burst strength and fitting retention.