What is Heat Shrink Tubing?
Heat shrinkable tubing helps to insulate & protect items & provides an environmental seal that can prevent contaminants from reaching sensitive components. Holscot uses heat shrink tubing to create heat shrinkable sleeves in PFA and FEP which provide non-stick surfaces to rollers, bars & rods.
How to use Heat Shrink Tubing?
Tubes or sleeves that are larger than the component being covered are slipped over the component and then shrunk onto the component using a heat gun.
The original inside diameter of the tubing must be large enough to slip over the component to be covered. The smallest and largest components to be covered will determine the size of the shrink tube needed. The tubing selected should be roughly 25% larger than the diameter of the largest component to be covered.
Benefits
There are many benefits to using heat shrink tubing, including:
- Safety – tubing offers protection to the things that it coats which often includes electrical components because of the electrical & chemical resistance it offers
- Excellent insulation – tubing offers extremely high electrical resistance
- Low friction – many fluoroplastic heat shrink tubes offer a low coefficient of friction which makes them excellent roller covers
- Inertness – fluoroplastic tubing is completely resistant to virtually all chemicals
- Protection – heat shrinking gives protection from all sorts of cuts & abrasions enabling the use of materials in places where they could be exposed to contaminants like chemicals, moisture dust & fine particles
- Temperature resistance – fluoroplastic heat shrink tubing has a wide range of operation and can suit the widest range of applications
Types
There are many types of fluoroplastic heat shrink tube types including:
- PTFE – this is used for its high working temperature (typically 260°C which exceeds any other shrinkable polymer) as well as because it has a low friction coefficient, it is inert & chemically resistant
- PFA – this is used for its high working temperature (typically 260°C which exceeds any other shrinkable polymer) as well as because it has a low friction coefficient, it is inert & chemically resistant
- FEP – this is used for its versatility in a wide range of working temperatures (-200° to +200°C) as well as because it has a low friction coefficient, it is inert & chemically resistant
- Teflon® – this is a brand name for PTFE & so it shares the same properties as PTFE
Holscot typically provide clear heat shrink tubing because the transparency allows for the inspection of the components that are being sealed. If you have more questions, please contact us or chat online.
