Material Spotlight Series: PTFE Sheet

What is PTFE?

As a non-reactive, hydrophobic compound, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a popular gasket material for a wide variety of niche applications across a range of industries.

At Gasket Resources Inc., our premium PTFE product offering includes:

Advantages of PTFE

PTFE’s chemical, electrical, thermal, and physical properties make it a highly versatile material. Resistant to chemicals, corrosion, and regular wear over time, PTFE is relatively maintenance-free and, as a gasket material, requires no additional lubrication. Other advantages of PTFE include:

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  • Nearly universal chemical inertness
  • Insolubility below 300° C
  • Low dielectric constant (only 2.1 times more permissive than vacuum) giving a high dielectric strength (60MV/m at 1MHz)
  • Embrittlement resistance at extreme temperatures
  • Good thermal stability (with a melting point >300°C)
  • Resistance to UV radiation
  • Excellent wear resistance for rolling/sliding components (coefficient of friction of 0.05 to 0.10)

Applications of PTFE

Because of its extremely hardy and resilient properties, gaskets made using PTFE sheet can commonly be found in applications involving very harsh environmental or operation conditions, and requiring a great degree of chemical resistance. Industries such as chemical processing, pharmaceutical, rail (for tank cars), and pulp and paper make heavy use of PTFE gaskets.

Durlon® 9000/9000N gaskets, made with a PTFE-inorganic filler blend, are rated both for chlorine and caustics, as well as high purity applications, allowing for their use by the food and beverage industry, as well as the pharmaceutical and medical industries for blood component manufacturing applications. Durlon 9000 has also been tested and approved for liquid oxygen and BAM certified for oxygen services. The Durlon 9000 step ring gaskets are often used in sulfuric acid plants found in phosphate refineries.

As another example, Durlon® 9200W is a PTFE-barium sulfate blend. Durlon® 9200W gaskets are used in applications that include highly caustic chemicals, such as sodium hypochlorite, nitric acid, and the chemical digesters used in the pulp and paper industry.

These physical forces are only a few of the applications in which you’ll find PTFE and PTFE blend gaskets. Their resiliency to chemicals makes PTFE blends incredibly versatile.

Gasket Resources Inc.

Gasket Resources Inc. manufactures a variety of PTFE products specifically engineered to minimize the risk of gasket separation and unnecessary maintenance costs.

For more information about our PTFE product offering, we invite you to download a free copy of our products catalog or reach out to our technical team.