Benefits of Teflon Coatings
Teflon® Properties
Teflon® is probably best known for its nonstick properties, but this substance has a number of other useful properties that make it an excellent choice as a coating for components in a range of applications. Our Teflon® coating process can add these unique attributes to carbon steel, stainless steel, steel alloys, aluminum, brass, and magnesium, as well as non-metallic surfaces such as glass, fiberglass, plastics, and some rubber materials.
Teflon®'s beneficial properties include:
- Nonstick: almost no substances will permanently adhere to Teflon®
- Low Coefficient of Friction: Teflon® has the third-lowest coefficient of friction of any known solid material
- Nonwetting: Teflon® repels both water and oils
- Heat Resistance: Teflon® coatings can operate continuously at temperatures as high as 260°C (500°F)
- Electrical: Teflon® offers high dielectric strength and other unique electrical properties
- Cryogenic Stability: Teflon® coatings can withstand temperatures as low as -270°C (-454°F)
- Chemical Resistance: Teflon® is completely resistant to all but a very few chemicals
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There are several basic types of Teflon® coatings, each with specific attributes that make it better suited to certain applications than other varieties. All types of Teflon® offer the properties listed above.
What is Teflon®?
The scientific name for Teflon® is polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-it's a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene. It is a high-molecular-weight compound consisting entirely of carbon and fluorine molecules. Teflon® has a melting point of 327°C (621°F), and a density of 2200 kg/m3.
Like many great inventions, PTFE was originally "created" by accident. In 1938, Roy Plunkett, a researcher for New Jersey-based Kinetic Chemicals, discovered that the iron inside a pressure bottle containing tetrafluoroethylene gas had acted as a catalyst, due to the high pressure, and had transformed the gas into a polymerized perfluoroethylene. Kinetic Chemicals patented the resulting fluorinated plastic in 1941, and registered the Teflon® trademark in 1945.
An early use of Teflon® was in the Manhattan Project, where it was used to coat valves and seals in pipes holding highly reactive uranium hexafluoride at the K-25 uranium enrichment plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. French engineer Marc Grégoire created the first non-stick Teflon® cooking pan in 1954, and the first US-made Teflon® coated frying pan-marketed as "The Happy Pan"-was sold in 1961.
Today, Teflon® coatings, resins, additives, and film solutions are used for everything from consumer products like apparel, cookware, and paint to industrial applications such as semiconductors, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and data communications cables.
Teflon® Coatings from Precision Coating
Precision Coating was one of the world's first Teflon® licensed applicators, and our mastery of tight-tolerance coating technology has kept us at the forefront of our industry. We are committed to the continuous improvement of our coating processes and to delivering the best quality coatings for every customer, every time.
Contact Precision Coating today about our Teflon® coating services.
