Design Considerations for Plastic Fuel Lines 880683
Plastic fuel lines have a long history in Europe but have only recently found acceptance in the U.S. Cost and material selection have played the key roles in the past. With the advent of pressurized fuel injection systems, the environmental resistance performance criteria have become more important and plastic materials such as type 11 and 12 nylon have met the challenge and replaced metal tubing and rubber hose as the fuel line materials. The success of a plastic fuel line application depends on material selection, routing and the method of connection to the rest of the system.
This paper attempts to explain the driving forces behind the historic use of plastic as a fuel line material. The main body of the paper will lay out the major design considerations which apply to fuel lines in general and will explain how these criteria, applied to plastic fuel lines, can result in a successful product. Because fuel line connections present many design challenges for modern pressurized fuel systems, this paper will discuss connections in some detail.
