GATONE-PEEK:
A
Super Specialty Engineering Plastic for Engineering & Tribology Applications
Dr.
Prakash Trivedi
Director,
Polymer Business Unit,
Gharda Chemicals Ltd.,
Mumbai.
Tushar
Parida
Sr. Manager, Business & Application
Development (Polymers),
Gharda Chemicals Ltd., Mumbai.
GATONE-PEEK
polymer has the ability to withstand high doses of gammaray radiation
without loosing its mechanical properties.
GATONE-PEEK
Polymer
GATONETM
PEEK is a semi-crystalline aromatic specialty thermoplastic with outstanding
thermal, mechanical, electrical, chemical and flammability properties,
ideal for applications demanding sustained high performance standards.
In the last few years, it has been used for varied versatile applications,
thus showing its ability to perform in hostile environments. The following
are some of the salient features of GATONE– PEEK, which makes it a
highly special engineering thermoplastic giving value, added products:
-
High Temperature Performance: It retains its properties till 260°C
and thus can meet most demanding applications, where steel is being
used today.
-
High Tribology Properties/Wear Resistance: Being a semi-crystalline
polymer, it has excellent resistance to wear and high performance
in tribology applications. Specially compounded grades have a low
coefficient of friction and high wear factor.
-
Chemical Resistance: It has been tested in-house for 250 chemicals
and has resistance to most of them including many concentrated acids
and bases. It is insoluble in most of the common solvents.
-
Flammability: Like most of the specialty engineering plastics, it
is flame retardant in nature without the use of Flame retardant
additives. It has V-0 flammability rating down to (1.6) mm thickness.
-
Smoke Density: The level of smoke & toxic gas emitted during combustion
of GATONE– PEEK polymer, is least among all thermoplastics, making
it a safe polymer to be used in aerospace applications.
-
Electrical: It has excellent electrical properties over a wide range
of temperature and frequencies.
-
Radiation Resistance: GATONEPEEK polymer has the ability to withstand
high doses of gamma-ray radiation without loosing its mechanical
properties. This property makes PEEK polymer capable of being used
in nuclear reactors/ nuclear power plants in different applications.
-
Suitability for Implants: GATONE –5300MG grade of PEEK has been
approved for USP Class VI for being used in body contact applications
as implants. Artificial knee joints, bones etc are some of the highly
specialized areas where it finds application. This application is
still being explored.
-
Hydrolysis Resistance: GATONE –PEEK is unaffected by high-pressure
superheated steam. This unique property makes it suitable for being
used in mechanical valves as “seats”. It successfully replaces PTFE
in such applications.
Grades
GATONETM PEEK is available in unreinforced as well as carbon and glass
fibre reinforced grades, ranging from 10- 60%. It is also available
in specially designed Tribology Grades for wear resistance applications
under difficult wear modes. The tables below indicates various grades
available and for various possible applications. All the reinforced
& tribo grades are manufactured using the neat grades mentioned below.
GATONE
5300 is a high viscous & low flow grade whereas GATONE 5600 is a high
flow & low viscous grade. The unfilled grades are available in pellet
& powder for both.
Tribological
Properties of PEEK Grades
GATONE PEEK is available in different filled grades suitable for tribo
applications. The grades have a combination of PTFE, Carbon Fibre,
Graphite & Glass Fibre. Approximately five different grades have been
developed:...
....contd.
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