Florida-based. On site at your plant or in an R&D lab.
Florida-based. On site at your plant or in an R&D lab.
Markets
Extrusion plants rarely make just one thing. GBET works across wire and cable, medical tubing, automotive and industrial tubing, and co-extruded and multilayer products, and on the equipment and tooling each of them needs.
Insulating and jacketing for building wire, power, communication and specialty cable. Spark faults, eccentricity, shrinkback, tooling and new plant due diligence.
$230.9B
global market, 2025
View
Single-lumen, multi-lumen and micro-extruded tubing. Tight tolerances, draw-down, sizing and materials that each behave differently.
$12.9B
global market, 2025
View
Mono-wall and multilayer tubing for fuel, fluid, air and industrial service, plus the sheathing of hose and other substrates.
$16.6B
automotive hoses, 2025
View
Two to five layers in one pass: layer uniformity, material pairing, tie layers, head design and start-up practice.
5 layers
run in a single pass
View
Market sizes: Grand View Research (wire and cable, medical tubing) and Stratview Research (automotive hoses). Full sources on the industry data page.
Growth means new lines, new products and new people on the floor, which is when equipment choices and training matter most.
Sources: Grand View Research: wire and cable; plastic pipe; medical tubing; plastic extrusion machines. Estimates differ between publishers.
Across these markets the same handful of extrusion processes do the work. GBET has hands-on experience with each.
| Process | What it is | Typical products |
|---|---|---|
| Single extrusion | One extruder, one material, one layer | Insulated wire, mono-wall tubing, jackets |
| Tandem extrusion | Two extruders in line, each applying a layer in turn | Insulation and jacket in one line, dual-layer constructions |
| Co-extrusion | Several extruders feeding one head, so that all layers form together | Multilayer tubing and cable, striped and skin-coated products |
| Micro-extrusion | Very small output on small extruders, with tight control of dimensions | Fine wire insulation, microbore and multi-lumen tubing |
| Sheathing | A layer extruded over a core, hose or other substrate passing through a crosshead | Jacketed cable, covered hose, coated substrates |
| Profile extrusion | A shaped die, with sizing to hold the shape as it cools | Conduit, wire tray and other profiles, including co-extruded PVC |
A few global names lead each segment. Behind them are thousands of smaller extruders: regional cable makers, contract tubing extruders and custom profile shops. They run the same processes with smaller engineering teams, which is where an outside specialist is most useful.
| Segment | What they extrude | Some of the largest producers |
|---|---|---|
| Wire and cable | Building wire, power and communication cable, automotive and specialty wire | Prysmian, Nexans, Southwire, Sumitomo Electric, LS Cable & System, Belden |
| Medical tubing | Catheter shafts, multi-lumen and microbore tubing, fluoropolymer tubing | Zeus, Spectrum Plastics Group, Freudenberg Medical, Raumedic, Saint-Gobain |
| Automotive tubing and sealing | Fuel, brake and coolant lines, sealing systems | Cooper Standard, TI Automotive, Sumitomo Riko |
| Pipe, conduit and profile | Pressure pipe, drainage, electrical conduit, building profiles | JM Eagle, Atkore, Orbia, Aliaxis, China Lesso |
| Extrusion machinery | The lines themselves: extruders, heads, downstream equipment | Davis-Standard, Milacron, Coperion, KraussMaffei, Reifenhäuser, Graham Engineering |
Companies are named to describe each industry. They are not presented as GBET customers and no endorsement is implied.
Extrusion follows its customers: cable plants near utilities and construction, tubing extruders near device makers, harness plants near vehicle assembly. The regions page sets out what each part of the world looks like, with figures.
No. Wire and cable is where Gene started and it remains a specialty, but the work also covers medical tubing, industrial and automotive tubing, co-extruded and multilayer products, micro-extrusion, profiles and the sheathing of substrates.
It is normal. The fundamentals carry over from one product to the next. What changes is tooling, materials and downstream equipment, and those are exactly what a changeover routine and good training are built around.
Of the segments tracked on this site, medical tubing has the highest forecast growth, at about 9% a year to 2033 according to Grand View Research. Wire and cable is by far the largest in dollar terms. The figures and their sources are on the industry data page.
GBET’s experience is concentrated in continuous extrusion of round and profile products: wire and cable, tubing, multilayer constructions and profiles. If your process is something else, such as flat film or sheet, ask. Gene will tell you plainly whether he is the right person.
Tell us what the line is doing, what it should be doing, and what cannot change. You will get a plain answer on whether training, tooling, equipment or process work is the right place to start.
