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Why you should cap your hose assemblies.

After cleaning and crimping your hose assembly, it’s essential that the hose stays free of contamination before use.  To do this, capping the hose ends with protective caps or plugs is advised, in our latest blog we look at some of the available options and the benefits.

Why cap hose assemblies?

To ensure the utmost safety and longevity of any hose assembly, it’s essential they stay free of contamination.  To do this, you should end your hose with protective injection moulded plastic caps and plugs or heat-shrinkable capsules.

Types of caps

Plastic caps and plugs can be manufactured in a variety of materials to protect most styles of hydraulic hose fittings, flanges and couplings and can be made with several attributes to ensure a good fit and match. Caps come with a female-threaded end that screws into the male-threaded hose end and cover the openings. The male plugs have a male thread and various head shapes, because they come in many shapes, sizes, and styles, it is imperative to ensure that the caps and plugs are compatible to the specific type of fitting to keep hose contaminant free.

Encapsulated seals

The seals cover either hose end of an assembly via a heat-shrinkable process. Since they are heat-sealed, encapsulated designs don’t generate contamination. The built-in tear strips on the encapsulated designs also ensure clean removal and help to reduce the risk of contamination by keeping the hose covered until the exact moment of installation.

Another advantage to encapsulated designs is that they will not fall off during transportation or storage of the assembly. Once it shrinks on, it conforms to the shape of the fitting. These caps are prestacked in stick form so when you pull that top capsule off, it’s always clean on the inside.

Summary

Both designs can be customised, injection-moulded caps and plugs can be manufactured in a variety of colours to suit customer preference, while the heat-shrink capsules can be private-labelled with customer name and logo.

Cleaning and capping your hose assemblies gives them a professional look and more importantly, eliminates the risk of contamination before it’s installed on its intended machinery.

How can we help?

HOS provides a range of hose protection including heat shrink caps.  Our team have over 30 years experience within the industry and are happy to provide any advice for your next project.  View our Heat Shrink Caps brochure HERE or contact our team HERE.