×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

PTFE conversion to powder or liquid or gas

PTFE conversion to powder or liquid or gas

PTFE conversion to powder or liquid or gas

(OP)
Hi
I have a need to remove a long tube of PTFE even in destructive means
Is there any chemicals or process which could convert physical properties of PTFE into non solid form - ie powder liquid or gas?

RE: PTFE conversion to powder or liquid or gas

Liquid sodium.

Very high temperature steam.

RE: PTFE conversion to powder or liquid or gas

Be very careful - PTFE degrades to HF and other nasty stuff when heated.

www.tynevalleyplastics.co.uk

Politicians like to panic, they need activity. It is their substitute for achievement.

RE: PTFE conversion to powder or liquid or gas

Definitely not for the faint of heart. It is teflon after all- it is chemically resistant to virtually everything.

RE: PTFE conversion to powder or liquid or gas

You can pyrolize it by heating to over 1000F but the fumes are very toxic they must be exhausted carefully.

RE: PTFE conversion to powder or liquid or gas

(OP)
Thanks for reply

Any one has an experience of cutting PTFE with laser? how deep penetration could be does it produce toxic fume?

RE: PTFE conversion to powder or liquid or gas

Yes, the laser will create toxic fumes. The same is true with pyrolysis- all you're changing is the heat source. High temperature steam decomposition will generate mostly tetrafluoroethylene, which itself isn't that toxic, but it will also generate some HF, CO and other molecules depending on the temperature and how much oxygen comes along for the ride with the steam.

Sodium will defluorinate it, and will make it crumble into dust. The resulting compounds aren't toxic, but sodium is dangerous to handle. I'm not sure why the defluorination causes the PTFE material to lose coehsion but it certainly seems to.

RE: PTFE conversion to powder or liquid or gas

Consider a thermite flare reaction 2Mg + (C2F4) ⟶ 2MgF2 + 2C, this similar mechanism could be possible with sodium. If you go the sodium route, just be ready for a HIGHLY exothermic reaction.

RE: PTFE conversion to powder or liquid or gas

Bear in mind that PTFE sublimes, it does not melt.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

RE: PTFE conversion to powder or liquid or gas

Tube dimensions? Length? ID? OD?
Straight or curved?

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: PTFE conversion to powder or liquid or gas

It neither melts nor sublimes- it depolymerizes.

RE: PTFE conversion to powder or liquid or gas

I was thinking that if the tube is large enough and straight, it might be possible to run a trepanning cutter through to remove most of it mechanically.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: PTFE conversion to powder or liquid or gas

Molten metal,
True , but it goes straight from a solid to a gas.
Which is what I was trying to get across.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources