This then brings us to the ‘hardness’ of the silicon tube as ordinary silicon tube would collapse at these dimensions; therefore, tip extraction silicon tubing should be of a high ‘Shore A’ hardness of 60 or higher to prevent wall collapse. The next common problem with this hose becomes critical to the overall performance of the system – the LENGTH.
Tests have shown that a large pressure drop is found in small bore tubing and for every 200mm of the hose there can be as much as 2 litres per minute drop in air volume. Multiply this over the entire system and it can lead to major problems.
The ultimate length of the silicon hose should be no more than 1.2m in length MAXIMUM.