PTFE • Polytetrafluoroethylene
Since its development in the 1930s, PTFE—otherwise known as polytetrafluoroethylene or Teflon—has become an indispensable material with applications utilized across a broad range of industries. While most famous, perhaps, for its role as a no-stick surface for pots and pans, it’s PTFE’s strength and versatility when used as a tubing component that has resulted in its greatest impact on industrial products. As a leading PTFE manufacturer, Tef-Cap Industries understands the requirements of today’s industry leaders in employing the benefits that PTFE tubing has to offer.
Airline and Automotive Uses
PTFE is the most flexible of all fluoropolymer tubing and has the third-lowest coefficient of friction of any known solid material. As producers of this nonflammable fluoropolymer, PTFE tubing distributors can manufacture tubing that’s uniquely suited to withstand the extreme temperatures and pressures common in aircraft industries, making PTFE products invaluable in wrapping aircraft wiring and cables. These same attributes are a few reasons why PTFE is found in the automotive industry, but it’s PTFE’s impermeable nature that makes it well suited to handle fuel lines.
Medical Industry Applications
The same properties that make PTFE desirable as a coating for cooking pots and pans have made it useful in the health care industry. In catheters, for instance, the nonstick nature of PTFE makes it impossible for matter to adhere to the tubing, preventing the growth of bacteria. PTFE tubing manufacturers are responsible for other medical devices that are vulnerable to bacteria such as drainage tubes, ventilators, and earpieces.
PTFE as an Insulator
PTFE has excellent dielectric properties particularly when high radio frequencies are present. This makes PTFE tubing perfectly suited as an insulator in connector assemblies and cables. PTFE distributors are responsible for much of the insulation found in printed circuit boards which are used at microwave frequencies. With its high melting point, PTFE is far preferable to its weaker counterpart, polyethylene.
A Nonreactive Material
Its nonreactivity and high temperature rating have resulted in PTFE’s prominent role as a liner in hose assemblies and in industrial pipelines that require the transfer of acids, alkalis, and other chemicals, while its nonstick nature is beneficial to improving the flow of viscous liquids in applications such as brake hoses and 3D printing.
With so many unique and beneficial properties it’s no wonder that PTFE tubing plays such a vital role in society.