Applied Plastic Coatings, Inc.

products and services

• Powder coating
• Sandblasting
• Tank Linings
• Pipe Coatings
• non-stick
• Kynar™
• Epoxy Floors
• Deck Waterproofing
• Plastisol
• Ceramic Exhaust Coatings
• Nylon™
• Fusion Bond Epoxies
• Vinyl
• Halar™
• Polyethylene
• Polypropylene
• Urethanes
• Anti‑slip Coatings

Fluoropolymer based coatings

When You need an extreme coating for extreme service often the coating of choice is a Fluoropolymer based coating. There are pure, blended, and resin bonded Fluoropolymer designed for many specific and general applications with properties that in meet or exceed even the most demanding specification.

All Fluoropolymers share many properties which make them either ideal coatings or components in coatings. They have excellent resistance to many chemicals, good UV resistance, good dielectric properties, and well known thermal properties. But not all Fluoropolymers are suited for all jobs.

Fluoropolymer family

PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene): Has lowest coefficient of friction of any known solid and is the Fluoropolymer most widely used in coatings. It feels waxy to the touch. Also blends well with engineering polymer binders. Is inert to most chemicals and is approved for use in food applications.

FEP (fluorinated ethylene propylene): Has the best nonstick and nonwetting characteristics of the three. It feels oily to the touch and lacks the high-temperature stability of PTFE. It's more resistant to corrosives that PTFE. Approved for use in food contact applications. Has excellent stability in waterborne coatings.

PFA (perfluoroalkoxy): Has better release and no-wetting properties that PTFE but not as good as FEP. Its wear characteristics are not as good as PTFE. Limited use in food contact applications. Has nearly the temperature capability of PTFE.

Nonstick (release) properties

Nonstick should not be confused with low friction: The two are different.

Friction results from two surfaces sliding across each other and is measured by a number that describes the reduction of drag (force) between sliding parts. Release is the property of a surface which results in the inability of substances to adhere to it. It is a function of surface energy that can be measured by the angle of contact between the surface and a drop of liquid: The larger the contact angle, the greater release property a coating has.

Release is associated with cookware, coated to release food materials. But release is equally vital to industrial processes: thermoforming, rubber molding, automotive and adhesive assemblies, copying machines, seal bars, dough knives. In many applications, buildup of foreign particles is a far greater problem than high bearing loads of corrosion. Examples: carburetor shafts, choke plungers, butterfly spindles, conveyor parts, instrument probes, fluid injectors, fuser rollers for copiers.

Buildup of dirt, ice, soot, scale, food and other foreign material can jam value butterflies, throttle shafts, float elements, orifices, plungers, solenoids and other mechanisms.

If contamination of a surface is anticipated, it can be minimized with a thin coating, enabling the part to shed the contaminants. If contamination is severe, buffing the coated surface will smear the Fluoropolymer on the surface of the coating and increase its release property.

Kynar™

PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) This material was at one time the first choice for chemical resistant coatings and remains the first choice for ultraviolet resistance. Although it is still available we are promoting Halar as a substitute.

Halar™

ECTFE (Ethylene Chlorotrifluoro Ethylene): Has the best chemical and abrasion resistance of all the Fluoropolymers. Great barrier properties (10 to 100 times better than PTFE or FEP to oxygen, carbon dioxide, chlorine gas and hydrochloric acid), resistant to wide variety of corrosive chemicals and solvents, resistant to cobalt 60 radiation, exceptionally smooth, very pure, and a dielectric constant of 2.6 makes this a first choice coating for laboratory and industrial applications.