The etching process consists in a chemical surface treatment on virgin or filled PTFE. It allows PTFE to be glued on to surfaces of various materials, such as rubber, metal, plastics, etc.
Guarniflon® owns the most updated technologies devoted to the etching process on semifinished (sheets, tapes, tubes, bars) and finished PTFE products, virgin or compounded.
The etching process of Guarniflon® is capable of providing uniformly reactive surfaces.
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Machined products:
Rings, bushes, parts and other designed products can be etched according to the end use partially or on the total surface.
Quality of etching:
GUARNIFLON® can guarantee the quality of etching by the control of process parameters and by evaluating the extent of etching itself through a wettability test (Contact Angle Method), and an adhesion test (ref. ASTM D903).Contact angle method:
It is based on the measure of the angle between the tangent to a distilled water drop and the PTFE surface (ie, the contact angle).
In Figure 1 two examples of contact angle are illustrated - on unetched surface (poor wetting) and on etched surface (good wetting), respectively.
The relationship in terms of performance between contact angle and etching is shown in Figure 2.
Contact angle and surface energy of etched PTFE are related by the following formula:
where:
Es = surface energy (dynes/cm)
The graph in Figure 3 shows contact angle vs. surface energy.
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Guarniflon Quality & Customer Care Manager Mr. Marco Nocera, together with our automotive process expert Mr. Marco Bonfardini, led IATF pre-audit last week.
READ MOREGuarniflon launches its family of PFA-FEP-ECTFE-PVDF moulded discs and sheets in thicknesses from 5 to 50 mm.
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