Learn About High-Purity Moldings

A: Wrong! Industrial Fluoro-Plastics, Inc. has tested and participated in testing various virgin resins. While we do not profess to have all the answers, one thing is clear; not all resins are created equal when it comes to cleanliness. Most are not that bad, but they are not all the same. Another thing that has come to light is that all molders are not the same. All molders will probably tell you they are better than the others, so have them prove it. We will match our material against anyone's in side-by-side tests.

A: If you order a PTFE blank from Virgin PTFE, that is what you should get. In the past few years, "Virgin" has taken on a new meaning. To IFP it means pure, or as pure as raw resin can be supplied. In other words, we add nothing and furthermore make a tremendous effort to make sure nothing contaminates the resin in the molding process. All of our materials are molded in IS0-7 Cleanrooms under strict processing procedures, using Class 10 Clean room garments and materials. Our molding Cleanrooms are in a larger Cleanroom. Our dies are manufactured from Stainless Steel. Our material, when tested for extractables, has lower extractables than when tested by the resin manufacturer. Why? The only answer can be that when they have their resin molded for the tests, the molder is unable to keep their resin as clean as we do. Most resin manufacturers use good practices in handling their resins, so it comes down to the molders. We can assure you that when you purchase materials from IFP, you don't get unwanted contaminants like dust, smoke, metals, and other contaminants present in most manufacturing plants. 

A: Yes, especially when you consider what you are currently rejecting for spots, contamination, & high extractables. If you are not, you should be. Your competition is.

A: You get materials that have been manufactured from clean resin. Your blanks will be molded in the cleanest of environments, cured in the cleanest of ovens. From the Stainless Steel, computer controlled oven, they are packaged in polyethylene bags, & labeled for traceability and tracking. Your blanks are never touched by human hands and are what you've paid for – Virgin PTFE.

A: Give us a part size. We will be happy to make a sample for you. Compare it and test it against your current parts. If you're getting the best from your current supplier, by all means stick with them.

A: Below are three charts. The first is of four materials molded by IFP, along with extruded PTFE. As you can see, all have less than 1.5 parts per billion of extractables. Though they aren't all listed, we tested for 36 elements. There were no traces for the unlisted elements. Compare that chart to the following two. These figures are from our testing, along with figures straight from the resin manufacturers' advertisements. In both, ours is much cleaner. That's really an understatement as ours only totals less than 3% of one and 1.5% of the others advertised contaminants. They really don't even know how clean their resins are. It's only due to our keeping their resin cleaner than their molders did during processing. If we can beat the big boys, we know we can handle your PTFE / TFM needs.