ATSP Innovations is announcing commercial availability of our VC201 filler material for bearing and seal applications. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) polymer is well known for the low friction it can provide in dry sliding and widely used as a solid lubricant because of its resistance to chemical attack in a wide variety of solvents and solutions, high melting point, low coefficient of friction, and biocompatibility. Unfortunately, PTFE suffers from poor wear resistance. If not reinforced, PTFE can form very large lump or plate-like wear debris. Hard particulate fillers made of ceramic or metal particles, and fiber fillers made of glass have been used with a PTFE matrix to dramatically improve the wear resistance, even up to three orders of magnitude. The use of such hard particles increases the dry sliding friction coefficient and abrades the counter surface. This can be problematic in bearing and seal surfaces applications.
NOWE VC-201 is a non-abrasive, high wear resistance particulate filler that can be mixed and embedded into the PTFE matrix to provide improved wear resistance for extension of the service life of seals and bearings. Case studies to date show up to a 3X reduction in wear rate in pin-on-disk experiments versus state-of-art liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) while processing as a drop-in replacement.