Technical Contributors: Steve Schick, Chief Technical Officer; Bruce Martin-Wright, Director of New Product and Process Development; Christian Herrild, Director of Growth Strategies
Paratubing, also called parallel tubing or bonded tubing, consists of two single-lumen tubes bonded longitudinally during extrusion. Commonly used medical tubing applications for fluid conveyance, it is manufactured in a range of materials and durometers to meet diverse application requirements. Beyond fluid transfer, paratubes are widely used in respiratory therapy, blood management technologies, and endoscopic devices.
What Are the Advantages of Paratubes?
Paratubes simplify both device assembly and clinical use. Keeping two tubes bonded together improves handling and positioning during manufacturing while reducing the need for clips, ties, or other tube management methods. In patient care, paratubes help minimize tangling, improve tube identification, and enhance patient comfort by reducing the number of separate tubes handled during procedures or hospitalization.
Material and Design Options
Teel manufactures paratubes in a variety of materials, including flexible PVC, PVC alternatives, and engineered materials such as copolyester elastomers. Individual tube sizes range from 0.050 in. to 1 in., depending on material. Designs can include three- or four-tube configurations or tubes with differing diameters to meet different end-use device requirements.
Paratubes can also be engineered with targeted peel strength (the force required to separate bonded tubes) and frost characteristics based on the intended application.
Peel strength can be tailored for permanent bonding or controlled separation during device assembly or end use. Higher peel strength is beneficial when tubes are meant to remain together throughout the life of the product. Lower peel strength allows tubes to be separated with a controlled force when needed for device assembly or as part of an end-use operation. Controlling peel strength is critical to prevent damage to the separation surface (zippering) leading to device rejection or premature separation. This can cause device assembly issues through equipment jams or high scrap levels.
Produced across the full tubing surface or in segmented stripes, frost finishes reduce adhesion between tubing sets or spool layers, improving handling during storage and automated assembly. Frost can also be applied merely for aesthetic purposes. Frost control is achieved through tooling design and other process controls but is limited by tubing size and material choice. Not all materials are compatible with all frost levels. Achieving consistent frost depends on tooling design, material selection, and tightly controlled extrusion processes.
Engineering for Quality and Consistency
Teel designs custom tooling and extrusion processes specifically for each application to achieve consistent dimensions, peel strength, and bond quality.
Critical features such as center alignment, OD/ID ratio, and dimensional tolerances are tightly controlled to support automated assembly and reliable device performance.
Unlike many manufacturers that produce each tube with separate extruders, Teel applies engineering analysis and melt flow modeling to develop a single-die extrusion process. By producing both tubes through one engineered die and a single extruder, melt temperature, flow characteristics, and drawdown remain uniform across both lumens. This tooling-driven approach improves dimensional consistency, creates a more uniform bond at the tube interface, and delivers repeatable performance from development through production.
Conclusion
Paratubes provide an effective solution for medical devices requiring dual-lumen tubing, offering improved handling, streamlined assembly, and enhanced patient usability. Backed by engineering expertise in extrusion process development and custom tooling design, Teel partners with customers from concept through production to deliver paratube solutions optimized for quality, consistency, and manufacturability.
Learn more about how we serve the medical device market.