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PTFE Rod: a Plug Sintered in Boiling Retene Vapour (Brubaker & Hanford 1946)
The first example of du Pont's way to shape PTFE: press a small rod of powder cold, then heat it above 327 °C out of the mould. Here the heat comes from the vapour of boiling retene, which boils at 394 °C, so the temperature holds steady by itself. The plug comes out sintered into one tough piece.
Source: M. M. Brubaker and W. E. Hanford (du Pont), US 2,400,099 (1946), Example I. The pressure is the patent's usual range, as the example gives none. The mould, press and the vapour-bath set-up are ours. Picture drawn by Youblob.
Advanced
1 day
Instructions
1
1
Press a plug from the powder
Press a plug from the powder
At room temperature, press small particles of PTFE in a mould into a plug 0.5 in across and 0.7 in long. The example gives no pressure; the patent's usual range is 100–3000 lb/sq in.
Materials for this step:
PTFE Resin Powder1 as required for the plugTools needed:
Compression Mould
Hydraulic Press
Ruler2
2
Set up a retene vapour bath
Set up a retene vapour bath
Boil retene so its vapour fills the space round a glass tube. Ours: retene in a flask on a burner, a reflux condenser on top, and the tube standing in the vapour.
Tools needed:
Retene
Glass Distillation Flask
Reflux Condenser
Bunsen Burner
Test Tubes3
3
Sinter for 3 hours
Sinter for 3 hours
Take the plug out of the mould, put it in the glass tube, and heat it in the vapour of boiling retene (394 °C) for 3 hours.
Tools needed:
Test TubesReteneBunsen Burner4
4
Cool it under the retene
Cool it under the retene
Remove the heat source and let the plug cool where it is. It is now sintered together into a tough mass.
Tools needed:
Test TubesMaterials
1- 1 as required for the plugPlaceholder
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