Clear Poly Tubing, a common term for Polyethylene Tubing, has become a fast growing alternative to poly bags and poly sheeting among many businesses and manufactuers seeking the convenience and cost cutting benefits of clear poly tubing.

Purchasing Clear Poly Tubing

Before you learn about the history or properties of clear poly tubing, you might be interested in how to purchase this product.

Clear Poly Tubing is widely available on the internet from companies like Discount Plastic Bags. Most manufacturers do not sell their product directly, and when they do, they sell it for a higher price. Additionally, no one manufacturer has every polyethylene product available. For that reason, most businesses look for quality distributors from whom to buy their clear poly tubing and bags.

Here are some tips in purchasing your clear poly tubing:

1. Seek a distributor that has been in business for a while. New distributors of clear poly tubing pop up all the time, and if you pay for the product, they may be out of business before you receive it.

2. Find a distributor that has a knowledgeable representative. Ken Woodruff, who owns Discount Plastic Bags and Packaging, LLC, has been selling plastic bags and clear poly tubing for more than 20 years. Ken tells us that a lot of his larger clients buy Clear Poly Tubing from his company because they know that an industry pro will be there to answer their questions and help them with problems. He says that although there are good, high quality manufacturers of clear poly tubing from countries such as China and India, most companies do not have a good experience buying their product from make shift operations in those countries who sometimes disguise themselves over the internet as U.S. based distributers of Poly Bags on Rolls, ziplock bags, and clear poly tubing.

3. Look for a company with a large choice of plastic bags and tubing. It's good to stay with one company that can help you with all of your polyethylene bag and tubing needs. When you need something different, like custom poly bags, you don't want to have to do the research and testing that's required to find a good vendor.

4. Have reasonable expectations: You may only need 100 1" x 50" bags, but chances are, no manufacturer is going to make that size of bag, and if they do, they aren't going to sell it in quantities of 100. Typically, unless you're buying from your local hardware store, you're going to need to buy in larger quantities. For a distributor to sell you more they usually woud have to charge you more than the cost of the larger quantity.

Types of Polyethylene Tubing

LDPE Poly Tubing

LDPE is defined by a density range of 0.910-0.940 g/cm3. LDPE poly tubing has a high degree of short and long chain branching, which means that the chains do not pack into the crystal structure as well. It has, therefore, less strong intermolecular forces as the instantaneous-dipole induced-dipole attraction is less. This results in a lower tensile strength and increased ductility. LDPE is created by free radical polymerization. The high degree of branching with long chains gives molten LDPE unique and desirable flow properties. LDPE is used for both rigid plastic containers and plastic film applications such as plastic bags and film wrap.

LLDPE Poly Tubing

LLDPE is defined by a density range of 0.915-0.925 g/cm3. LLDPE is a substantially linear polymer with significant numbers of short branches, commonly made by copolymerization of ethylene with short-chain alpha-olefins (for example, 1-butene, 1-hexene and 1-octene). LLDPE has higher tensile strength than LDPE, it exhibits higher impact and puncture resistance than LDPE. Lower thickness (gauge) films can be blown, compared with LDPE, with better environmental stress cracking resistance but is not as easy to process. LLDPE is used in packaging, particularly film for bags and sheets. Lower thickness may be used compared to LDPE. Cable covering, toys, lids, buckets, containers and pipe. While other applications are available, LLDPE is used predominantly in film applications due to its toughness, flexibility and relative transparency