PTFE Coated fiberglass fabrics, tapes and belts are typically a tan color. Within the industry, we call this color “Natural”. But if you’ve ever worked with fiberglass fabric (maybe to repair your car or boat), it looks white. And of course it is white until it sees heat, then it turns “tan” or “natural”. Read on if you’d like to find out why!
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Fiberglass yarns are made up of very fine filaments of glass fiber. These filaments are amazing little things, but they are, after all, glass and are subject to damage or breakage like any glass product would be.
Imagine very fine fiberglass rods; they’d easily snap and break if not handled very carefully. In order to make fiberglass filaments more durable, a starch “binder” is applied to the filaments to protect them in further handling, braiding, twisting, weaving, etc. These binders are organic… in some cases they are potato starch!
These binders caramelize when they see heat, very similar to a piece of toast turning brown in your toaster! Of course, PTFE coating of fabrics, tapes and belts requires relatively high temperatures to cure the PTFE. That tan color from the binders being heated is then trapped within a translucent PTFE coating, thus making the final product “tan” in color. We call it “natural” because it is what naturally happens to these binders. You may see slight variations in the tan/natural color of the product because different binders are used on different yarns.
OK, but why are some black in color? That’s because we sometimes add pigment to the PTFE dispersion to achieve different colors or characteristics. Black is often used for several reasons. First and foremost, it is used to pigment belts in ultraviolet curing ovens (most often in the screen printing industry). When under UV lights, the starch binders that make a fabric or belt “tan” will bleach out, turning your tan belt a funny shade of off-white.
Although this in no way impacts the performance of the belt, it is often perceived as a failure. In order to hide that change, we make the belts black. That same black color can mask other things like wicking oils in food processing, ink from screen printers, etc. In some rare cases, specialized pigments (mostly black) are used to try to impart a degree of conductivity to this incredible insulator. In most cases, the point is to create a path to discharge static electricity.
What about other colors? Sure, they can be done but really are very specific to certain industries and not typically an issue in most commercial applications.
Yarns for electrical insulation are an entirely different beast, Yes, we manufacture those as well, but they are another topic entirely!
Again, and as always, contact us with any questions or comments. We’re here to help!
At NEDC, we die cut all sorts of products. One product that I’m surprised I have not mentioned in the 5 years I’ve been doing the blog, is PTFE Coated Fiberglass Fabric materials. Right before the turn of the New Year, I decided it may be a good idea to discuss a material that we not only sell, but actually use at NEDC.
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PTFE is coated onto a fiberglass substrate. Since there is only two parts to this, I figure I’d break them down
PTFE- PTFE is used because its: Chemically Resistant, High Temperature Tolerant, Anti Stick, Low Friction Surface
Fiberglass- Fiberglass is used because it can withstand enormous pressures without flowing, its very tear resistant, and also high temperature
As we go through the properties below, you can start to see why these two materials combined together make such a great combination. Admittedly, these fabrics are some of the most versatile materials around. This is for a few reasons- which I’m sure I’m not capturing all their uses, but the point is- these materials are super versatile:
SG13, SG56, CHR A, SG26, and SG15
2. These materials can be provide in a porous fabric that allows excess trapped air, and other volatiles to escape out of an application during molding/shaping
3. Actually, we use PTFE coated fiberglass fabric here at NEDC when we are bonding things together often. The reason for this is it at has a high release quality, well also being able to withstand the high temperatures that are commonplace in bonding applications. For a second, just forget bonding applications – but baking, and cooking applications often utilize materials like this as well.
4. These materials are oftentimes FDA compliant to the 21 CFR 17.- which is different then the 21 CFR 17. we talked about in our FDA gaskets blog.
Each material, or tape can have a different coating of PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) for different applications. Certain coatings of PTFE are better for higher temperature, or more release applications.
Want more information on ptfe coated fiberglass fabric? Feel free to contact us.