PTFE | History | Properties
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• Fluoroplastics

Fluoroplastics as a class of plastics. It resins are resistant
in aggressive chemical environments. Most are completely insoluble in common
organic solvents and not affected by chemical substances, such as: concentrated acids
and bases and at high temperature. Mechanically, fluoroplastics are
useful at temperatures between -200 and 260ºC, present excellent electric insulation properties, low dielectric constant, good power factor and high superficial and volumetric resistivity. Additionally, fluoroplastics have low friction coefficient, especially the perfluorinated resins, which gives them self-lubricating and non-adherent qualities. They present oxygen levels usually higher than 30. The different fluoroplastics are approved in strict flammability tests, even in thin sections. Thus, these resins hardly ignite, also resisting to the propagation of flame to fire


• Discovery of PTFE

The most surprising discovery was made by Dr. Roy J. Plunkett.
Hard to process, in principle PTFE was used
only as an extraordinary strategic material; its industrial application
in scale occurred from 1950 and, especially, from 1960.