FEP is a fluoroplastic with excellent performance, which is a copolymer of tetrafluoroethylene and hexafluoropropylene.
About 80 years ago, chemist Plunkett invented polytetrafluoroethylene resin (PTFE) in DuPont's Jackson Laboratory in New Jersey, USA. Subsequently, DuPont developed a series of products other than PTFE, including FEP (DuPont is really powerful).
FEP is a polymer of tetrafluoroethylene and hexafluoropropylene, so it has both the advantages of tetrafluoroethylene and the good processability of thermoplastics. Its high insulation, flame retardancy and good processing performance as ordinary thermoplastics can make up for the lack of PTFE in processing performance to a certain extent.
The electrical insulation performance of FEP is very similar to that of PTFE. Its dielectric coefficient is almost unchanged from cryogenic to the highest operating temperature, from 50Hz to 1010Hz ultra-high frequency, only about 2.1.
Its heat resistance is second only to PTFE, and it can be used continuously in the temperature range of -85 to 200 °C. The ordinary temperature difference between day and night or the temperature change caused by the change of seasons has little effect on it. It still maintains elongation and a certain degree of flexibility at -250°C, which is beyond the reach of other types of plastics.
Its chemical resistance stability is similar to that of PTFE. Except for reacting with fluorine element at high temperature, molten alkali metal and chlorine trifluoride, it will not be corroded when in contact with other chemicals.
FEP has similar characteristics to PTFE, and has a good processing technology for thermoplastics, making it an important material to replace PTFE. It has the characteristics of high temperature resistance, anti-oxidation, non-flammability, high oxygen index, self-extinguishing, etc. It is an ideal line for optical fiber communication cables. In the production of wire and cable, it is widely used in transmission lines of electronic equipment used under high temperature and high frequency, connecting lines inside electronic computers, wires for aerospace, and other special-purpose installation lines, oil logging cables, micro-motor lead-out lines, etc.
In addition to light weight, FEP wires have fast transmission speed. Using them as cable insulation layer is beneficial to improve the life of the network. Digital communication cables using FEP have been used in the construction of high-speed LAN integrated wiring systems in high-rise buildings to transmit voice, images and data quickly and accurately.
In the industrial field, especially in the production of acoustic sensors, FEP has always been the leader, and is widely used in the production of various electroacoustic and acoustic electric sensors, including ordinary telephones and voice-activated telephones, walkie-talkies, fax machines, hearing aids, bugs, Voice-activated toys, voice-activated switches, and acoustic sensors for voice-activated computers account for more than 80% of all types of acoustic sensors.
In the medical field, FEP is also used in repairing heart valves and small trachea, and made into ultra-low temperature storage bags for blood.
