Thermoplastic Elastomers seal strip
Elastic like rubber, yet not rubber !
Elastic, supple and flexible - these are the properties typical for rubber, a material known by everybody and part of everyday life in many forms.
Rubber is made from caoutchouc, a natural or synthetic product. Caoutchouc is a viscous plastic material, which is transformed into elastic rubber only by adding polymerizing substances such as sulphur or peroxide and subsequent heating. During this "vulcanization" the thread-like caoutchouc molecules polymerize due to the build-up of chemical bonds between each other. This polymerization is the reason for the elasticity of product. The vulcanization can only be reversed by thermal destruction.
The Thermoplastic Elastomers (TPEs) show a completely different behaviour. As their namehermoplastic Elastomers (TPEs) conveys, these materials turn plastic during heating (Greek: thermos = heat), when cooling, however,they revert to elastic behaviour again. In contrast to the of rubber, in thischemical polymerization case a occurs.physical polymerization occurs.
Considering their structure and behaviour, the TPEs range between thermoplastics and elastomers.They can be processed as easily as thermoplastics and have the most important properties of rubber.Above all, TPEs are no risk for the environment. In contrast to rubber, they can simply be recycled and MaterialQuality re-processed.
In the mean time, there exists a plurality of TPE qualities for the most various applications such as the food compatible quality approved and released by the FDA.