What is PFA Tubing?
You casually browse the rows at a hardware store or the categories of an online retailer, searching for a tubing solution that best suits your application. All of a sudden you came across PFA. Wait a minute. What is PFA tubing? What is it being used for, and can it serve me better than all the other types of tubing on the market? To give an answer to those questions, we first have to know the PFA meaning. What does this abbreviation stand for? PFA stands for “perfluoroalkoxy”.
PFA tubing is a fluoropolymer tubing, designed to combine the strengths of FEP and PTFE tubing. This product gives the customers the best of both worlds, or in this specific case, the best of both fluoropolymers.
What is PFA tubing?
PFA tubing is such a rigid material, that in some cases can even replace stainless steel tubing. Its benefits come at a higher price, of course, but many professionals will prefer it. PFA tubing handles high temperatures and pressures well. PFA tubing is also resistant to chemicals, even when they sit in the system for prolonged periods of time. The lack of inertness in some chemicals can be destructive to most tubings.
PFA tubing is a go-to option for moving elements. Its flexibility and resistance to cracks and breaks make it perfect for moving parts in machinery. PFA Tubing provides stiffness and long flex-life while working in temperatures up to 260º C.
Besides all that, it is clear, which makes overlooking production processes way easier. It is also perfect for spotting blockages in the system, which can save valuable time.
Those and other benefits make PFA tubing a preferred option for a lot of industries. In some cases, the use of it may not be mandatory, but going the extra mile and building the systems with PFA tubing proves beneficial to the manufacturers.
PFA tubing properties
The above-mentioned benefits of PFA tubing are far not the only ones. PFA tubing properties are many, and each of them makes the product suitable for different applications.
- Chemically stable
- Dielectric strength
- Wide temperature range (-200°C – +260°C)
- Non-flammable
- Chemical resistance
- Antistick properties
- Low friction
- FDA approved
- High purity
- UV Resistant
- Translucent
- Low moisture absorption
- Suitable for flare and conventional fittings
Because of its chemical resistance and high purity, PFA tubing is largely used in the pharmaceutical industry. It proves stable against strong corrosive chemicals like nitric and phosphoric acid, which are often used. It is here that the high and ultra-high purity levels of PFA tubing make the difference. Keeping the purity of materials is of critical importance in the pharmaceutical industry.
The high purity levels of PFA tubing is what makes it a great solution for food and beverage manufacturing. For instance, when bottling beverages, PFA tubing is far more convenient than stainless steel counterparts. Largely because of its translucency. We have mentioned above how that property could be a big benefit, especially when a system malfunction occurs because of a blockage. Rather than guessing where the blockage might be, with PFA tubing technicians can easily spot it without performing any disassembling.
Perfluoroalkoxy tubing is used almost everywhere. We are mentioning the most demanding production cycles, where the PFA tubing properties make the most impact, but the actual application of the product probably stretches to every production line. Being an actual part of the process or a valuable piece of a machine that is used in it, PFA tubing is most likely implemented in some way.
Besides all of the valuable properties, it is important to mention that PFA tubing is available in long rows of tubing. This means that professionals can easily cut pieces exact in length for their application. It also helps that the product is largely available in orange, as well as its original translucent state. This proves valuable for those that might want to mark tubings that go in and those that are going out of a certain container in different colours.
At Holscot you can order any colour you like, pigmentation can be introduced to suit your needs. You can also order PFA tubing at exact cuts. Just contact our sales team at sales@holscot.com or call +44 (0) 1476 574771 to reach our friendly staff.