Views: 20 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2021-04-05 Origin: Site
Thermoplastic elastomer, commonly referred to as TPE, is an elastomer material that has a softer and more flexible texture than plastic. "TPE" contains a series of concepts. Due to the different chemical composition and combination of thermoplastic elastomers extruder, they can be divided into several categories. We will find more in this article.
The following knowledge points are listed below:
l Basic knowledge about TPE
l The advantages of TPE
TPE are copolymers composed of materials with thermoplastic and elastomer properties. These materials have the characteristics of rubber and plastics.
TPE has the characteristics of high strength, wear resistance, oil resistance and grease resistance. They have strong elasticity, impact and tear resistance. TPEs are available as rigid and soft compounds and are easy to color. Since most TPE require little or no compounding, the material exhibits consistency from batch to batch, resulting in high repeatability of the finished product. Thermoplastic elastomer is an economical material choice for many products. Therefore, they are a kind of plastic widely used in industrial applications.
TPE are widely used in automobiles, household appliances, medical equipment, construction and construction fields. Some of the custom products preferred by plastic manufacturers using thermoplastic elastomers include:
l Tubing
l Weather strips and sealing strips
l car parts
l prune
l Equipment guides and guards
l Expansion joint
l Hinge
Thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) is a type of polymer. Within its design limit, its behavior is similar to thermosetting rubber, but when it is higher than its melting or softening temperature, it can be melt-processed by thermoplastic processing methods and is combined with TPE foam granules making extruder.
Unlike, thermoplastic elastomers can be easily reprocessed and reshaped. The ability to process these materials using thermoplastic methods prevents thermoset rubbers from providing design and manufacturing freedom.
All thermoplastic elastomers are composed of crystalline domains and amorphous domains. Some are mixtures or alloys of crystalline and amorphous polymers, and some are block copolymers composed of crystalline and amorphous domain blocks along the same polymer chain.
It is the crystalline domains that are "heat escape crosslinking" that give the thermoplastic elastomer the thermoplastic characteristics, while the amorphous domains give the thermoplastic elastomer the elastic characteristics.
Crystal domains are often referred to as "hard" phases, while non-crystalline domains are referred to as "soft" phases. Although both phases contribute to the overall physical and mechanical properties of TPE, some key properties may be associated with one or the other to guide the selection or design of TPE compounds.
l Processing temperature
l Continuous use temperature
l tensile strength
l Tear strength
l Chemical resistance and fluid resistance
l Adhesion to inks, adhesives and molded substrates
l Lower limit of working temperature
l hardness
l flexibility
l Compression set and tensile set
The industry generally ranks various thermoplastic elastomer technologies based on cost and performance. This is a convenient method of material classification, but it can be very misleading because performance should be defined by the requirements of the application rather than a standard set of attributes, and the performance-price curve will be based on the performance of interest Standard changes. In the section on choosing the right TPE, we listed some of the criteria that RTP companies use to narrow down and choose the best TPE for an application.
As conclusion, Thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) has unique properties and has become an essential material in automotive, manufacturing and industrial applications. This allows them to replace traditional elastomers when manufacturing pipes, hoses, insulating coatings, gaskets and seals. Thermoplastic material extruders with water ring have resilience and flexibility similar to vulcanized rubber, and are commonly referred to as thermoplastic elastomers. That’s all about TPE properties.
