Awards for novel uses of fluoropolymer resins

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jul 22, 2002

WL Gore and Associates, Holscot Fluoroplastics and Keronite took the first three prizes in the European section of the DuPont Plunkett Awards 2002 competition.

WL Gore and Associates of Putzbrunn, Germany, Holscot Fluoroplastics, of Grantham, England, and Keronite of Abington, Cambridge, England, won 1st, 2nd and 3rd place honours, respectively, in the European section of the DuPont Plunkett Awards 2002 competition for innovation with DuPont Teflon and Tefzel fluoropolymer resins.

This was the eighth competition in the series established in 1988 to mark the 50th anniversary of the discovery of Teflon PTFE fluoropolymer resin by DuPont scientist Dr Roy J Plunkett.

"The winners of this year's Plunkett Awards again demonstrate the valuable contributions of Teflon in innovations that make a difference in people's lives by reducing costs or improving performance", said Tim McCann, global business director for DuPont Fluoropolymers.

The competition recognised winners from the Americas, Asia-Pacific and European regions, each receiving $5000 for first place, $3000 for second place and $1500 for third place.

Top prize for a European entry was awarded to WL Gore and Associates for its antistatic version of Gore-Tex laminate developed for protective clothing used in environments involving flammable gases or fumes.

Gore-Tex Workwear antistatic membrane effectively dissipates dangerous static charges with a conductive grid 10,000 times denser than conventional conductive grids, according to Gore engineers.

The antistatic material maintains the breathable, waterproof and wind-proof characteristics of standard Gore-Tex membranes, which are also made with Teflon PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene).

An innovative mobile laser fusion coating system for applying nonstick, low-friction surfaces of DuPont Teflon on large metal objects such as industrial rollers, drying cylinders, ship hulls or aerospace surfaces won second prize for Holscot Fluoroplastics.

The new process enables a durable nonstick coating to be fixed on surfaces that are essentially immobile, too big to go into ovens or that cannot withstand oven fusion temperatures.

By using a laser to create the heat necessary to work with Teflon only a small area needs to be heated at any one time to obtain a fixed, non-stick coating.

This ensures rapid heat dissipation away from the area being coated and avoids unnecessary heat build-up on temperature-sensitive materials.

The mobile system provides an effective alternative to oven-fused coatings and can be transported easily to the coating site, thus avoiding any need to move large structures.

Third-place honours in Europe went to Keronite for developing a revolutionary form of surface engineering technology for coating light metal alloys such as aluminium, magnesium and titanium with a hard ceramic layer followed by impregnation with DuPont Teflon PTFE.

The composite coating, called Keronite, overcomes the softness, high wear and corrosion deficiencies of such alloys and results in a durable surface that is non-stick and highly resistant to abrasion and chemical attack, according to the company.

According to Keronite, the environmentally friendly technology enables light alloys to be used in applications where hardness and lightness are key requirements.

It employs an electrolytic process that transforms the surface of the substrate metal to create a hard, dense, ceramic layer which is atomically bonded to the substrate.

The hardness of the Keronite layer ranges from 400 to 2000HV, depending on the alloy used, and is claimed to be three times more wear resistant than tool steel.