Custom Products

• Plastic Tubing
• Plastic Core
• Clear PVC
• Plastic Fabrication
• Injection Molding

Stock Products

• Alertline®
• Alertline® Flexible Hose
• Plastic Pipe
• Plastic Pipe Nipples
• Central Vacuum Tube
• Flex PVC Hose
• Flex Risers
• Water Conditioning
• Wye & Tee Strainers
• Hydraulic Control Tubing
• Shapes & Tubes

Sometimes the solution for your pipe project involves multiple steps to achieve the best results. Excalibur has taken extruded plastic tubing and afterwards applied inline machining to create grooves in the pipe. Other companies have not been able to achieve success with this product. Doing this in a multi step process gives us the power to more closely control the groove depths. This allows us to create the best product possible and fulfill each customer’s specific needs.

Rapid prototyping is a technology that takes a three-dimensional computer model and builds a three-dimensional part by building layers upon layer of ABS material. Its speed and low cost allow design teams to confirm their new designs early and frequently in the process. Excalibur has the latest 3D printing technologies to assist our customers in their plastic tube selection.. We provide solid models so they can view and touch their design revisions. We help to reduce our customers' time-to-market. Unlike appearance-prototypes produced in weak materials, Excalibur parts built in ABS (acrylic butadiene styrene) have been used for functional and field tests.
We can produce your prototype, plastic tubing, injection molded part or plastic fabrication at our facility. Any item that is designed on CAD software can be reproduced in durable ABS plastic. From a simple sketch or concept to the final product, Excalibur will work with you to get the job done to your satisfaction.

Excalibur Extrusions has for over forty years designed and run some of the most unique extrusion tooling for products for a wide range of industries ranging from medical to fencing; from toys to aerospace; from wind mills to film labs. We offer in house die design with the latest in 3D CAD. We know that the proper design of an extrusion die is extremely important to achieve the desired shape and accurate dimensions of the extruded product. We have the expertise to design extrusion dies to the desired shape and accurate dimensions of the extruded product.

As water costs raise alternatives such as graywater irrigation using Excalibur Alertline® piping systems could provide a solution with benefits beyond just saving water cost. Alertline® is a way to keep landscapes green and healthy even under severe droughts and watering restrictions.
Studies of household graywater irrigation systems have found that soil irrigated with it showed increased levels of surfactants (surface active agents), antimicrobials and sodium compared to those irrigated with freshwater, but that only three salt-sensitive tree species (avocado, lemon and scotch pine) out of 22 plant species investigated showed negative reactions to long-term graywater irrigation. In addition, the nitrogen present in graywater had plant-growth benefits. It is possible that fertilizer addition can be reduced or eliminated where graywater irrigation is used.
The report “Long-term Study on Landscape Irrigation Using Household Graywater-Experimental Study (06-CTS-1CO)” is available for download at www.werf.org and on ACI’s Science website at www.ACIscience.org.
Alertline, manufactured exclusively by Excalibur Extrusions, is the industry's first PVC pipe compounded and color-coded specially to carry reclaimed water. It eliminates the problem of dangerously cross-connecting to clean water hoses or pipes, because Alertline Hose is purple-colored and easily identifiable.

Spring Back Risers® spring back to original position after impact. Spring Back Risers® are great for various landscaping applications and can be made in any length, with any combinations of fittings. Use them below each sprinkler to absorb shocks and lateral stress. Spring Back Risers remain flexible indefinitely. Ends are constructed of PVC and will not become brittle with age.

This is not the easiest conclusion to come to, nor is it an easy question to answer. There are, however, some crucial things to consider when commencing your search for the best plastic.

Consider your application for the item and ask yourself the following questions to determine the best plastic option for you:

• Will the plastic tubing be exposed to the outside elements?
• Will it be subject to pressure internally and/or externally?
• Will the item be exposed to extreme temperatures (-32 or +100F)?
• How strong vs. how flexible does it need to be?
• Will it require any threading for a mating piece?
• Do you know the dimensions you want?
• Regarding dimensions, how much tolerance can it stand to have?
• And finally, do you have a rough or approximate quantity?

Answering a greater majority of these questions will put you ahead of the game when inquiring with a plastics distributor or extruder. Not to mention the fact your initial conversation with the distributor or extruder will be clear and concise, leaving both parties sure about what the end result should look like. 

Excalibur sustains American quality

With more and more companies returning their manufacturing to the U.S., no longer is the lower labor cost of off-shoring/ overseas outsourcing justified. According to Eric Markowitz, a reporter on small-business issues for Inc.com, "improvements in automation in the last few years mean that labor costs are becoming a much smaller percentage of the overall cost of most products."


Miscalculations of manufacturing costs, increases in overseas shipping costs, currency factors like China's currency manipulation, and "opportunity cost due to delivery and quality (i.e., lost orders, slow response, lost customers--as percentage of price)," have all resulted in American companies returning (re-shoring).
Essentially, the costs of going abroad, as Markowitz states, "have been wildly underestimated, and American firms are beginning to realize that the total cost of going abroad don't justify off-shoring in the first place."

With over 40 years of reliable service, Excalibur has evolved the craft of plastic extrusions and championed effectiveness here in the states. Excalibur will continue to sustain a progressive attitude toward fostering sound relationships, while producing quality American-made products.

A study released by the Water Quality Association (WQA) reveals how water softeners can save homeowners a "significant amount of money and energy" (2010). According to the study, softeners offer savings and green benefits when using gas water heaters, electric water heaters, tank-less water heaters, appliances, and shower heads.

Excalibur carries a crucial component to water softeners, the brine well. Brine wells are located inside the salt tank of a water softener to hold the salt of the unit. The brine well also “isolates the air check valve on the safety float from the rock salt or potassium chloride” (Quality Water Treatments, 2009). Brine wells also disable the air check valve and the water softener valve from getting clogged. For replacement brine wells from Excalibur, click here.

The study determined that there are some notable findings regarding water heaters, appliances, and shower heads. Specifically key was the amount of efficiency and life that such apparatuses sustained by being operated with softened water. The study shows that the efficiency and life of water heaters, appliances and shower heads are affected by the buildup of calcium scale deposits caused by hard water. The prevention of scale buildup from hard water grants water softeners to be among the “very best household energy savers,” thus translating to a significant amount of money saved (WQA, 2010). For more information on statistical findings regarding the study, click here.

Commissioned by the Water Quality Research Foundation (WQRF) in 2009, the study was undertaken by the Battelle Memorial Institute, a “renowned independent testing and research facility dedicated to applied science and technology development” (WQA, 2010).

 March 2012: The Process of Extruding Clear Plastic Tubing

Most all clear plastic tubing is created through the process of extruding, which involves heating raw thermoplastic materials (i.e., polymer resin) and then channeling the molten substance into a die. Dies give the molten plastic its shape, size and design. Once the polymer resin has been forced through the die, it is cooled and then solidified by pulling it through a water tank. For custom extrusions, a die cast must be designed to consider the subjective application of the tube. A large impact on how readily an extrusion profile can be extruded depends on the design. At Excalibur, the demand for clear PVC tubing variety has produced an array of extrusion dies to accommodate the need. Clear PVC tubes differ in wall thickness, inside and outside diameter, and shape.

Clear plastic tubing is used for a variety of purposes. Its optical clarity has become popular for uses in which the visibility of the contents flowing, or passing, through the tube is favorable. Beverage, healthcare, chemical, and food processing industries commonly use this application. However, it is not uncommon to find other needs and applications for clear plastic tubing in domestic and environmental settings.

February 2012: Plastic tube extrusion

A plastic tube or profile extrusion is characterized by having a continuous shape where all of the bumps, groves, angles, and curves run in one direction. The process allows efficient, continuous production of uniform cross-section by forcing the plastic through the orifice of a die resulting in simple shapes such as plastic tube, plastic pipes, and enclosed shapes of any length. Excalibur Extrusion makes possible the production of plastic tubing with:

· Wall thickness from .025" to .750"
· Tolerances to ± .005"
· Round plastic tubing 1/16" through 8 1/2"
· Square plastic tubing 1/8" x 1/8" through 7.5" x 7.5"
· Enclosed shapes of nearly any design
· Wide range of OD and ID finishes including smooth, ribbed and key-way.

January 2012: Custom color matching

The Right Color can be critical

Having the right color plastic tube or injection-molded part is very important to many of our customers. Color is especially important for consumer products, but many industrial and military products must have specific and consistent color as well. Having the right color may be functional, or it may reinforce the appearance of a quality product.

Custom Color Matching

Most thermoplastic materials are stocked in black or “natural.” The natural color may be white, off-white, translucent, or yellow depending on the material. Even if an application does not need a specific color, many natural color resins look unattractive to the point where a custom color match is warranted.
To color a thermoplastic material, Excalibur purchases color concentrate in pellet form. The color concentrate pellets are a similar size and shape to the thermoplastic materials. In many cases, we can buy inexpensive stock color concentrates in small quantities that can be used with specific resins. In other cases, our customers may request a FED STD 595 or Pantone® color matching. Excalibur uses a spectrophotometer to analyze sample colors. We can get a color matching of any color in most materials, even based on just a sample part.
When dealing with color concentrates, it is important to use a proper base resin. Color concentrate is normally added at a rate of 100:1 to 25:1 depending on the color and material. We work with our color concentrate suppliers to match to a base resin that will not significantly change the properties of our extrusion or injection molding material. With less common materials, this usually means that we send some of our material out to have it made into color concentrate.

December 2011: Multi-lumen flex vinyl

Multi Lumen plastic tubing has multiple channels running through its profile. These extrusions can be custom engineered to meet your device needs. Multi Lumen tubing has a symmetric or irregular Outside Diameter (OD), two or more Inner Diameters (ID's), and walls of various thicknesses. This tubing is available in almost any shape including circular, square, oval, triangular, and irregular. These lumens can be used for guide wires, fluids, gases, wires, and various other needs.
Excalibur Extrusion supplies custom multi lumen plastic tubing to manufacturers around the world. Our customers have come to expect high quality multi-lumen tubing. Our multi lumen tubing is extruded to demanding tolerances with precision. Sizes range from 1/16” to over 6”

November 2011: Burr free cutting

A plastic extrusion will often require after-process steps such as champfering or deburring. While these additional steps can turn a rough cut into a clean cut, time and labor must be invested to achieve the improved ends. Now, with the use of a planetary-cutter, Excalibur is able to offer extrusions that are consistently produced with a ‘show-ready’ end cut. Customers can receive product free of dust and burrs normally resulting from production-saw cuts.

October 2011: Non-contact sizing

As applications demand we utilize non-contact sizing because it allows breakthrough accuracy with difficult and tacky materials like flexible PVC. Repeatability is excellent and advantage of vacuum is that the weight of the water is actually removed from the tube as vacuum level is increased. Non-contact sizing allows us to hold tight tolerances at high extrusion rates. Our equipment has highly-advanced controls for extra-fine adjustment and digital readouts for easy assessment of vacuum and temperature levels.

September 2011: Product testing with in-house lab equipment.

As a part of our full service commitment to you, Excalibur is equipped to run standard tests such as impact, crush, burst, durometer, accelerated regression, color analysis. The Excalibur lab is not only crucial to the development of new products, but also in helping production identify and overcome any processing challenges that may arise.

August 2011: Meter Idler - Use as temporary meter bypass when meter is out for service

A water meter idler (sometimes called jumper or spacer tube) is used during installation of a water meter to ensure and maintain proper alignment and spacing between water meter fittings of the water meter. Following installation, the water meter idler (or jumper) also allows water to flow through the water meter prior to installation of a water meter. The idler bar is a rigid PVC pipe having machine-threaded connections. Larger sizes seal with rubber O-rings at its ends. Excalibur machines Meter Idlers for all sizes and brands of meters. Common material are PVC and CPVC.

July 2011: Fast Turnaround Gives Jump Start to Start-up 

"When one door closes another opens. Recently out of work I found I had time to pursue an idea with great potential. I had a key component but only a vague idea of the rest of the unit. The challenge was that window of opportunity was very narrow. With confidence Excalibur could make what ever I needed I could think clearly to design a hot item. Although not completely designed it was received so well that quantity delivery became a new challenge. You were right there with me in the design phase and delivered product before anyone else. Thanks for the jump start with my start up." - One of our customers provided this comment regarding our plastic tubing fabrication.

June 2011: Delivering on a stress-free order 

A customer of ours was concerned about getting his large plastic tubing orders in a timely fashion. Working closely with the customer, we began filling and preparing the orders for delivery by re-using collapsible containers. Doing this not only protects the product from the elements during delivery and eliminates waste by re-using packaging materials, it also allows us to make larger shipments less often, reducing the stress to our valued customer.

May 2011: Stock polypropylene pipe saves the day

We are custom extruders but sometimes it pays to have a sizeable inventory of stock plastic pipes.

An interior designer needed flexible, translucent pipe with a specific inside diameter. And he needed it quickly, because the lack of this plastic tube was delaying a project.

Combing our inventory, we found natural polypropylene pipe that was of a size close enough for our designer to work with. For his long term needs, though, we were able to produce a custom-made translucent plastic tube that was exactly what he required.

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April 2011: One-stop shopping for an order of Clear PVC

An inventor was looking for a special kind of pipe. He wanted Clear PVC pipe about five inches long, drilled in ten places and threaded on the inside. Could we help him?

Luckily, we could. There are not a lot of companies that manufacture clear PVC, but Excalibur Extrusions is one of them. The drilling required a gang drill, a machine that has several drills operating together. Again, not many companies have gang drills, but we do. Still fewer are capable of doing internal threading, another capability of ours. Since our inventor friend wanted his pipe to be created in one shop, Excalibur was the perfect answer. We did all three operations under one roof.

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March 2011: Going green with plastic cores 

Who hasn't experienced the cultural shift of "going green" by taking more responsibility for the environment? Customers who take that responsibility seriously are finding that Excalibur can help them out. One way is by converting paper cores to plastic cores.

Because plastic cores are reusable and recyclable, we're helping our customers reduce energy consumption by switching from "paper" to "plastic." And the more often plastic cores are used, the lower the cost per use. They're also much more durable than paper cores and resist crushing, collapsing, or any other type damage.  Plastic cores are also waterproof and resistant to most chemicals and solvents. We specialize in plastic core products for the pharmaceutical, biomedical, food, beverage, chemical, and cosmetic industries. All plastic core products are manufactured, stored, and shipped using the cleanest methods possible. So let's save some trees! Use plastic cores!  

February 2011: Stocking Square Tubing

We noticed numerous inquires for square plastic tubing and more often than not that even though we have made the requested size, we did not have the size that the customer wanted in stock. We will now stock limited quantities of square tubing in common sizes as we run them. To view stock sizes of square plastic tube click here. If you do not see the size you are looking for please call for availability and lead-time.

January 2011: Bending PVDF

Polyvinylidene Fluoride, or PVDF is used generally in applications requiring the highest purity, strength, and resistance to acids, bases, solvents, and a tolerance to heat. It produces little smoke in the event of a fire. PVDF is commonly used in the chemical, medical, semiconductor, and defense industries. PVDF’s tolerance to heat is what makes it difficult to fabricate. Our customer had been using our gooseneck bends in PVC and Polypropylene for some time and came to us for a new requirement in PVDF. We are quite familiar with PVDF and we recognized the sensitivity of the material. Excalibur has forty years experience in post extrusion fabrication and knew the special tooling required for this application. Our customer was very satisfied with the results.

December 2010: Plastic Vs. Metal - Plastic is better when:

• Weight is an issue – Plastic tubing is lightweight for weight reduction.
• Cost is a concern – Plastic tubing is more cost effective. Extruded plastic tube can be much cheaper than other materials of the same shape.
• Corrosion is a worry – Plastic extruded and molded parts are completely corrosion resistant.
• Fabrication is required – Plastic has the advantage of ease of cutting/fabrication
• Bright durable color is needed - Plastic tubing can be pigmented with wide range of colors. The color will go all the way through the product, which is impossible with, metal or wood. Plastic tubing may be color coordinated with other parts. Plastic tubes may be color coded for easy part identification.
• Chemical resistance is an issue – Plastic tubing is resistant to most alkali and acids.

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November 2010: Going Green – Scrap buy back program

We believe that everyone should recycle as far as possible. Excalibur has a buy back program for any plastics previously manufactured by Excalibur. Frequently our customers during their fabrication processes accumulate trim ends and scrap. We recover this scrap or waste plastic and reprocess the material usually into the same product but sometimes completely different in form from their original state. For instance, this could mean melting down medical grade plastic cores and then extruding them as lawn trim. This process allows our custom extrusions to serve over and over then finally perform as a durable plastic product for a lifetime.

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 October 2010: Pneumatic tubing conveyor (Air tube transfer)

Although plastic tubing is formed and therefore sized on the outside, often times it is the inside diameter (ID) that is of primary concern to our customers. One such application is pneumatic tubing. These systems provide high speed sending and receiving between multiple locations using air to move a closely fitting carrier in applications such as hospitals, retail stores, and distribution centers. With valuables traveling hundreds of feet at up to sixty feet per second they cannot afford to have a jamb or snag. That’s where we come in. Our customers rely on our expertise in controlling the ID over thousands of feet of plastic tubing. They have been coming to Excalibur for their precision tubing for decades, some for as long as they have been in business.

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September 2010: Plastic that conducts electricity

Our customer required a plastic tube that would not build up a static charge for a clean room application. They required about the same level of resistance that would be expected when using an antistat. However, an antistat would tend to impart a greasy feel to the surface and are therefore not suitable for this cleanroom application. We selected Inherently dissipative resin or IDP to be mixed with the host resin at 25% into the host polymer; this formed a separate interpenetrating network within the host polymer. While antistatic agents must migrate to the surface of the host polymer in order to be effective, IDPs conduct charges while buried within the host resin. The tubing maintained it’s structural integrity and dissipated any static charge. A perfect solution.

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August 2010: Going Green – Custom tubing cut to length

Several individuals have sought out our flexibility of processing to help them “Go Green”. Many plastic tubing products in final assembly end up being shorter or longer than stock lengths. This can and often does result in considerable waste. A routine aspect of our process is to cut our plastic tube to finished length thereby eliminating waste.

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July 2010: Nipples Machined from Extruded Stock Provide Better Seal

The project required plastic pipe threaded nipples of various lengths. The twist was that it also required that the installer be able to cut the nipples to random lengths and solvent weld them into plastic socket fittings. The question to us was, “could we make plastic pipe nipples without the seams.” Our answer was simple. All of Excalibur Plastic pipe nipples are made from extruded stock and therefore have no seams, ridges, parting lines, or sprues. The customer was very pleased that our stock nipples would work without any special effort or thought.

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June 2010: In house spectrophotometer provides both faster and more accurate color consistency

With thousands of custom color matched plastic parts at stake and product already on display rapid fulfillment with very accurate color consistency was required. Excalibur was able to cut several days off of the time between order and production by having the capability to perform color analysis in house. Transit time was eliminated in color selection and approval. Incoming color was compared to retained data to insure, prior to production, that the finished product would meet expectations.

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April 2010: Experience serves us - and a customer -well

Excalibur Extrusions has a great deal of experience in observing how various plastics react with a wide range of chemicals and with the environment.  That experience proved invaluable when a customer needed a special order for square tubing. This plastic tubing had to be non-conductive - that is, unable to conduct heat or electricity - and was going to be used in acidic, moist, hot conditions. We were able to determine precisely what would be needed, based on our deep knowledge of what works under certain conditions and what does not. Another happy customer!

February 2010: A creative solution for a customer in the Philippines

An order for plastic cores from a company in the Philippines presented a challenge for us: Not only did this customer need a number of keyways, which is a notch that allows the plastic core to be locked onto a turning shaft, cut into the inside of each core, but square, clean (or "burr-free") cuts also had to be made every inch. Because of the short length of the cores, the keyways, and the requirement of a clean, consistent, inside diameter, our solution was using our injection process to create exactly what our friends from the Philippines needed.  While our extrusion process is often the best process in manufacturing plastic tubing, injection allowed us to be little more creative with this fairly complicated order. Unlike many of our competitors, foreign and domestic, we have mastered both processes and are able to choose the best method for any particular order.

December 2009: Purple pipe is the answer for L.A. architect

An architect working on an irrigation project for the City of Los Angeles had a problem: He had to be able to identify which flexible hose was being used for reclaimed water. Being unable to do so risked possibly connecting "clean" lines with "reclaimed" lines. And, he was in a hurry to complete his project.

Alertline to the rescue!

Alertline, manufactured exclusively by Excalibur Extrusions, is the industry's first PVC pipe compounded and color-coded specially to carry reclaimed water. It eliminates the problem of dangerously cross-connecting to clean water hoses or pipes, because Alertline Hose is purple-colored and easily identifiable.  

Working with reclaimed water carries special requirements, and we understand that. We also are able to make custom extrusions on short notice, and since the architect needed help, fast, we were able to provide him with the Alertline solution that met his needs.

November 2009:  Overcoming the pinhole challenge

A company was looking for a manufacturer that could provide ½” clear PVC with centered pinholes for a project they were working on that used a chemical weed killer.  The clear PVC would be set into a larger 6” diameter plastic tube.  Once we had the specifications, Excalibur was able to do the intricate pinhole placements by setting up a separate work area for our drill press machinist.  And extruding large diameter tube and providing clear PVC are two areas in which we specialize.  For our effort, we got a good review.

“We set out to find a supplier that had the strengths that matched the project," said Murray Phillip of Westward Products Ltd.  “With your company supplying the completed components to us we are able to fit this project easier into our lean manufacturing process. Processing the smaller plastic components through our large equipment would present us with some challenges that we are too busy to deal with at this time. Thanks for all of your help.”  

October 2009: Our clear PVC on "Big Brother" 

A call from Jeff Farrington of Our House Productions helped us illustrate the versatility of plastic PVC. Jeff needed clear PVC - and fast - for a game that pitted contestants against each other on the reality television show “Big Brother 11.” The game set was being constructed in the backyard of a home in Studio City, CA, and called for the use of  Clear Sch 40 PVC.  Jeff told us later that “you guys really came through for me as I was able to pick up several loads back to back. The tube looked great and performed well. Thank you for being there.” 

The tube was used to create a maze that formed an end-to-end spout that spewed foam. The setting was dark but illuminated with flourescent lighting. The neon-colored foam looked very psychedelic. Want to see our pipe on national television? Click on the following link. The "game" segment starts at about the 1:39 mark.

August 2009: Machined nipples to the rescue

We recently got a phone call from a landscape contractor with a big problem. Seems an architect for a large turf project had specified machined nipples in the design. The installation was done, but not with machined nipples. When the work was inspected, the installers were forced to replace each and every nipple with an Excalibur machined nipple. To eliminate confusion and make sure installers and designers know they've received machined nipples, we've decided to modify our packaging. Our nipples now ship with tamper-proof labels reading "MACHINED NIPPLES."