Lost Tubes
In medical field, "lost" tubes are tubes which have to be replaced after single use. This is not genuine tube cleaning in the proper sense and is very often applied in the medical sector, for instance with cannulas of syringes, infusion needles or medical appliances, such as kidney machines at dialysis. The reasons for the single use are primarily the elimination of infection risks but also the fact that cleaning would be very expensive and, particularly with cheap mass products, out of all proportion in terms of cost. Single use is therefore common practice with tubes of up to 20 mm diameter. For the same reasons as in the medical sector, single use may also be applicable in the food and pharmaceutical process technology, however in these sectors the tube diameters may exceed 20 mm.
In other fields (e.g., in heat exchangers), tubing may also sometimes need to be replaced (or removed, plugged, etc.), but this typically occurs only after a prolonged use, when the tube develops serious flaws (e.g., due to corrosion).
Read more about this topic: Tube Cleaning
Famous quotes containing the word lost:
“If a person lost would conclude that after all he is not lost, he is not beside himself, but standing in his own old shoes on the very spot where he is, and that for the time being he will live there; but the places that have known him, they are lost,—how much anxiety and danger would vanish.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)