Thermoplastic Elastomers

TPE is for Thermoplastic Elastomers, this is a class of materials which show both advantages typical of rubber materials and plastic materials. They are also called termoplastic rubbers. They are fully recyclable like plastics and they can be molded like plastics or extruded like plastics but they have typical elastic properties of rubbers (which are not recyclable since they are thermosetting). The biggest differences in the structure of thermoset elastomers and thermoplastic elastomers are the type of cross-linking bond. The cross-link in thermoset polymers is a covalent bond that is created during the vulcanization process. The cross-link in thermoplastic elastomer polymers is a weaker dipole or hydrogen bond. Cross-linking is the critical structure needed to cause high elastic properties. A family of TPE is TPV. TPV stands for Thermo-plastic-vulcanizate, these materials are TPE, they are biphasic materials composed by a plastic phase and a rubbery phase which is crosslinked. The rubbery phase is crosslinked by chemical covalent bonds. The morphology of these materials can be described as continuos phase of plastic which is contributes to mechanical properties and is responsible of the property of being recyclable and a dispersed phase of covalently crosslinked rubber which is responsible of elastic properties. TPV can show good mechanic-elastic properties at temperatures up to 110 C.

Why Use TPU "Thermoplastic Poluerthane" for Rollers