Views: 105 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2021-07-24 Origin: Site
Expanded PTFE is a new type of medical polymer material, made of PTFE resin through special processing methods such as stretching. It has a network structure formed by connecting fine fibers. These fine fibers form numerous pores, so that the expanded PTFE film can be bent arbitrarily, has good blood compatibility, and is resistant to biological aging. This can be used to manufacture medical products such as artificial blood vessels and heart patches. Expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) has good chemical resistance, anti-wear properties and strong high temperature and low temperature resistance, which is very suitable for the transportation and sealing of industrial liquids.
Expanded PTFE tape is one of the most professional variants of PTFE. It has a wide range of uses, from simple gaskets to complex membranes for high-end filtration and medical membranes. Many customers will wonder about the similarity between ePTFE tape and thread sealing tape. In this article, we will understand the difference between the two.
Thread sealing tape is mainly used in pipelines. Before tightening the matching pipeline, it is wound on the threads of the pipeline. Plumber's tape is a very useful material. However, compared with ePTFE tape, thread seal tape has serious limitations.
1. Differences in Production
Pipe thread seal tape is made by extruding PTFE beads, and then passing them through various rolling, slitting and winding operations. The thickness of the unsintered PTFE tape is approximately 0.075 mm.
The ePTFE tape is first extruded to make it. Then, the tape is dried and passed through a stretching machine at a high temperature. The stretching process requires CNC control to ensure that the stretching rate, speed and temperature are maintained in accordance with strict parameters. The resulting tape has a thickness of 0.25 mm to 15 mm.
All in all, thread sealing tape is a calendered unsintered tape, while ePTFE tape is stretched and heated.
2. Differences in End Properties
Plumber sealing tape is mainly used to seal leaks in pipelines. The unsintered PTFE material is soft and easy to wind.
As a sealing material, ePTFE is not only used for sealing, but also resistant to high pressure (up to 100Bar), high temperature (up to 250°C) and corrosion resistance. Generally, under high pressure, high temperature and high corrosion environment, the tape will lack the mechanical strength to withstand the same strength.
ePTFE also has high dielectric properties and is used in high-end cable packaging. Some cable manufacturers use threaded sealing tape to wrap the cable, and then sinter the cable to melt the tape. However, the probability of failure of the wrapped cable in this way is greater.
ePTFE is also microporous and can be stretched at high temperatures. The calendering process used to make the threaded sealing tape proved that it had no holes. ePTFE also has hydrophobic and oleophobic properties.
To sum up, ePTFE tape and thread sealant tape are very different in effectiveness and application range. Many applications use threaded sealing tape to meet the needs. From a commercial point of view, the cost of ePTFE is many times the cost of a simple threaded sealing tape. Therefore, whether to use ePTFE depends on the application itself and the required properties of the material.
