FEP Dupont FEP
FEP (Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene), often referred to as DuPont FEP, is an advanced fluoropolymer engineered to provide excellent performance in corrosive, high-temperature, and electrically demanding environments. It combines many of the advantages of PTFE with improved melt processability, allowing manufacturers to produce tubing, films, liners, and precision components with consistent quality and dimensional accuracy.
One of the key benefits of FEP is its exceptional resistance to a wide range of chemicals, including strong acids, alkalis, solvents, and oxidizing agents. This makes it an ideal material for chemical processing systems, fluid transfer equipment, laboratory applications, and components exposed to aggressive media.
FEP also offers outstanding electrical insulating properties with low dielectric loss, making it a preferred choice for wire insulation, cable jacketing, electronic components, and telecommunications equipment. Its excellent UV resistance and weatherability allow it to maintain performance in outdoor and harsh environmental conditions without significant degradation.
The material features a naturally smooth, low-friction, non-stick surface that minimizes material buildup and simplifies cleaning. It also exhibits high purity and low contamination characteristics, making it suitable for semiconductor manufacturing, pharmaceutical processing, and high-purity fluid handling systems.
In addition to its thermal stability and chemical compatibility, FEP provides excellent transparency compared to many other fluoropolymers, allowing visual monitoring of fluid flow in tubing and process equipment. It can be fabricated using conventional melt-processing techniques, enabling efficient production of complex industrial components.
Because of its combination of chemical resistance, electrical performance, thermal stability, and fabrication versatility, FEP is widely used across semiconductor manufacturing, electronics, aerospace, chemical processing, medical technology, telecommunications, and industrial engineering.
FEP, Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene, has all the desirable properties of TFE (PTFE) but with a lower service temperature of 200 degrees C (392 degrees F). Unlike TFE, FEP can be injection molded and extruded by conventional methods into FEP rods, FEP tube, FEP Film, FEP Sheet and special profiles. This becomes a design and processing advantage over TFE.
What is FEP material?
FEP plastic is a copolymer of tetrafluoroethlene and Hexafluoropropylene. This melt-processible fluoropolymer exhibits excellent resistance to heat, wear and chemicals. Polymer Plastics offers besides Dupont FEP, Daikin Neoflon FEP and Chemours FEP.
It is like PTFE in that it is a soft material with low tensile strength, and low wear resistance. FEP is chemically inert and insoluble in all but a few exotic solvents. Like TFE, FEP is manufactured by DuPont/Chemous and sold under the name of FEP.
In direct comparison to TFE, FEP material has a lower heat resistance (-400 degrees F to +392 degrees F), a higher coefficient of friction and poorer wear resistance. They are similar in their electrical properties, chemical inertness, strength, moisture absorption, and anti-stick characteristics.
Applications include electronic items such as wire covering and FEP spaghetti tubing, FEP linings for pipes in the chemical industry, aircraft wiring, and glazing for solar energy collectors.
Properties, Applications and Availabilities for the FEP Sheet and Rod
| Properties | Applications | Availabilities |
|---|---|---|
| Heat resistant | Wire insulating | Rod: .125″ to 6.00″ |
| Chemically inert | Chemical fluid handling | Sheet: .093″ to 2.00″ |
| Excellent electrical properties | Medical tubing | FEP Film: .003″ to .060″ |
| Zero moisture absorption | “O” Rings | FEP Tube |
| Transparent | Seals | FEP Tubing: See fluid handling tubing |
| Radiation resistant | Gaskets | Standard Color: Translucent white |
| Very Low gas permeation and outgassing | Semi Conductor equipment | |
| Outdoor UV Resistant | Hostil Environments | |
| Hot Air weldable for tanks | Food Processing | |
| Microwave insulation | ||
| FEP Sheet Sizes Available | ||
| minimums may apply | ||
| Specifications | 3″ x 3″ – .002, .005 thickness | |
| ASTM D211683 | 6″ x 6″ – .010 thickness | |
| LP 389A | 6″ x 12″ – .015 thickness | |
| 12″ x 12″ | ||
| 12″ x 24″ | ||
| 18″ x 18″ | ||
| 24″ x 24″ |
Specifications
ASTM D 2116 (types I, II, III, or IV) FDA and USDA 21 CFR-177.1550 3A Sanitary Standard 20-17 USP Class VI
