Irrigation equipment maker Rain Bird Corp. added color stripes to plastic tubing to help identify different drip-watering zones.
In an Azusa, Calif., plant, Rain Bird extrudes the half-inch-diameter tubing of linear low density polyethylene with carbon black and uses a second extrusion to add a stripe of green, purple or yellow. The stripe won't wear off, said Bob Birnbaum, Rain Bird's engineering group manager for extrusion process.
Rain Bird launched its new Xeri Black Stripe tubing line in January.
“It's something we need to fill our product line,” primarily for agricultural and turf markets, said Chris Kee, development engineer for the product line.
Installers can use the ultraviolet-light-resistant tubing at or below grade in any drip irrigation system. Tubing coils are available in 100-, 500- or 1,000-foot lengths.
Rain Bird also has manufacturing and assembly operations in Tucson, Ariz.; Tijuana and Nogales, Mexico; Aix-en-Provence, France; and Helsingborg, Sweden.
Privately held, Glendora, Calif.-based Rain Bird competes largely with Toro Co.'s Riverside, Calif.-based irrigation business and Hunter Industries Inc. of San Marcos, Calif.
