While most common O-Ring supplies are rubber or elastomeric compounds, sure operating conditions and hardware configurations merit the use of PTFE because the material.

PTFE gives many distinct advantages over elastomers. These advantages include corrosion resistance, huge temperature range capabilities, excellent electrical properties and an virtually unlimited shelf life, to name a few.

But some considerations should be taken under consideration earlier than making the switch to a PTFE O-Ring.

While PTFE gives some distinct advantages over elastomers, it also has some draw-backs that may negatively affect seal performance.

Eclipse presents totally customized PTFE O-Ring sizes out of our full range of PTFE blends that may help boost performance and longevity to your seals. However in some cases, an Eclipse Spring Energized seal is likely to be the best choice for optimal sealing performance.

Right here’s the way to determine whether a PTFE O-Ring or Spring Energized seal is the most effective to your application.

Advantages of PTFE O-Rings

Chemical compatibly is usually one of many first things checked when specifying an O-Ring material.

Corrosion resistance

Media that isn’t compatible with typical rubber compounds, or caustic or corrosive chemicals can make PTFE the only option of material.

PTFE is impervious to nearly all industrial chemical substances, making it one of the vital corrosion resistant supplies available all through all industries. And it the integrity of rubber compounds is being compromised by chemical attack, then PTFE might do the trick.

Long shelf-life

Applications requiring long-life or prolonged service intervals in corrosive environments may additionally merit using PTFE.

While some elastomers may survive for the brief time period or in intermittent exposure, degradation over time might end in problems years down the road, whereas PTFE’s resistance properties will stay indefinitely.

Vast temperature range capabilities

PTFE’s temperature range capability of -325°F to +500°F is also well past the range of most elastomers.

Applications in cryogenics or high temperature situations akin to ovens or combustion processes may also rule out any elastomer compound, again making PTFE the very best choice.

Extraordinarily low temperatures will cause most rubber compounds to harden to the point the place any elastomeric properties are no longer current in the material. This mixed with contraction of the material can mean it will now not operate effectively as a seal.

PTFE, on the other hand, retains flexural and pliability properties even at cryogenic temperatures.

Additional Benefits to PTFE O-Rings

PTFE has some additional advantages over rubber compounds as well:

Unlimited Shelf Life: PTFE doesn’t degrade with age and is unaffected by UV light, so age management is just not typically obligatory

PTFE doesn’t swell on account of moisture absorption

PTFE will not be susceptible to explosive decompression

Virgin PTFE is FDA Compliant

PTFE has excellent electrical properties akin to dielectric energy and electrical resistance

The Disadvantages of PTFE O-Rings

While chemical attack or extreme temperature may not depart any choice besides PTFE, there are some disadvantages to the material that would have an effect on your project.

Higher hardness

Virgin PTFE’s hardness is fifty five Shore D, which is much harder than a typical Nitrile O-Ring at 70 Shore A, which is a softer scale.

The higher hardness negatively impacts sealability, as the material doesn’t conform the mating hardware surfaces as easily.

Leakage rate

While rubber O-Rings might conform to “as machined” surfaces, PTFE may require submit-process surface finish improvements to control leakage to acceptable levels.

On the whole, under regular conditions, the leakage rate for a PTFE O-Ring will be higher than any elastomeric compound.

Using a PTFE O-Ring isn’t advisable for applications that don’t require extreme temperature or extreme chemical conditions.

Inelasticity

PTFE’s nature as an inelastic materials means that reuse or multiple installations of the same seal will not be possible.

Unlike rubber compounds, PTFE will not return to it’s authentic shape and cross-part as soon as deformed throughout installation and use. Meaning PTFE O-Rings are typically only advisable for static face seal or flange type configurations that aren’t actively engaged and disengaged.

For instance, a PTFE O-Ring wouldn’t be really helpful for a chamber door seal that must be opened and closed ceaselessly, because the O-Ring would likely have to get replaced after every use.

A reused PTFE O-Ring may look and perform equally to a standard rubber O-Ring affected by extreme compression set. But unlike rubber, this compression set happens after only one use.

More usually, PTFE O-Rings are found in flange gasket type applications the place the seal will remain static and undisturbed until the following service interval.

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PTFE as been round for a while and has its own advantages and disadvantages. It was discovered accidentally, not unlike Alexander Fleming’s discovery that a green fungus was eating the micro organism he was trying to develop in a petri dish; Penicillin went on to change the world as we know it. PTFE was discovered by Roy Plunkett, an worker of DuPont back in 1938. Apparently the old boy was trying to make a few million more for the already rich DuPont family by trying to come back up with a new chlorofluorocarbon refrigerant when the tetrafluoroethylene in his test bottle stopped flowing. Much like Penicillin, Roy’s discovery had surprisingly positive and useful side effects; he observed a coating inside the bottle he was utilizing, sawed it open and found a particularly slippery substance within. Abracadabra, presto change-o: polytetrafluorethylene, or PTFE for brief, was discovered. Three years later, the material was patented by a subsidiary of DuPont and given the trade name Teflon. The patent has since run out and there are actually many manufacturers of PTFE throughout the world. For the sake of this blog, and more importantly, to keep away from patent violations (yeah, they’re supposedly expired, however it IS DuPont) we will be referring to this material as PTFE. Apparently sufficient, the byproduct of the production of PTFE, the stuff Roy most likely threw out, is perfluorelastomer that is used so typically in critical o-ring applications within the semiconductor industry. That, nevertheless, is an entire other blog post. Although just lately methods to mold PTFE have been developed, the fabric comes in sheet form, is a common component in artificial joints, and can also be useful for making inside repairs within the medical area, the primary focus of this put up will be on seals and backup rings machined from billets of material.

Machining PTFE Seals

A lot of the PTFE seals on the market today are machined from cylindrical billets. The process of making the billet is similar to the process of sintering metal. The raw material in powder form is at instances pelletized with the intention to use an automated process to pour the beaded PTFE material into the cylindrical, steel cast. For some very critical applications though, the powder should be put into the mold by hand which requires more labor at normally a higher cost. The fabric is then compressed into the mold utilizing a large press. The resulting materials is not unlike kiln-dried clay and as such may be very fragile. Within the next step the billet is careabsolutely positioned into ovens; PTFE has a very high soften level (one of many reasons it is so effective in sizzling applications); it is heated to 342 C (648 F). The top product produces a billet that is recognizable and is now ready to be machined into the end part that will be used.

PTFE Advantages and Disadvantages

Virgin PTFE is white and has the advantages of a very high temperature rating, extremely high lubricity, and being inert to most caustic fluids. A disadvantage is that it’s also very soft. PTFE producers, therefore, add quite a lot of components into the blend like carbon fiber, glass, bronze, and lots of others, as a way to strengthen weak traits of the material and improve performance like extrusion resistance and hardness. Since PTFE in its virgin form tends to cold flow or take on the shape of its housing, filling the material with different compounds makes the tip materials more immune to cold flow.

Because of its lubricity, PTFE is superb in dry, oil-free environments. PTFE seals can perform in static fashion and dynamic reciprocating, and make best high-speed rotary seals. There are a few things to consider when deciding to use a PTFE seal, though. PTFE is a ‘dead’ material, in other words, it has very, very sluggish memory; when compressed it tends to remain compressed. Seal producers make up for this by loading the seal with an energizing device like an o-ring, or, more likely, a spring. In the case of a lip seal, these energizing units lend their inherent mechanical energy to the seal and allow it to proceed to do its job particularly when in a low pressure state, when the sealing media is just not engaging the lips.

PTFE is also pretty fragile and it’s of utmost significance to make certain that the surfaces are smooth and relatively hard. For rotary motion for example, hardness must be between 55C and 65C with a surface finish of 2 and 16 RMS. Most producers will have data based mostly on the design of seal and the fabric that is very important to take into consideration when designing the hardware for a PTFE seal. Elastomeric seals will ride on a thin coating of fluid that inhabit the crevasses of the hardware, PTFE however is a self-lubricating materials that really coats the shaft or bore (relying on your application) with a fine film of itself; so usually lubricity and sealing improves with use.

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