Killing The Myths Surrounding PTFT Sealing Tape

There are considerable myths surrounding ptfe as a material all to our knowledge are not true. We are not aware that anybody has died from eating or breathing fumes from PTFE, so we think it is safe to use pffe tape on threaded items to prevent leakages and to stop corrosion. When using ptfe tape it is important that the user realises that, like everything else in this world, there is good tape and not so good tape! During manufacture some tapes are “stretched” to make the tape go further, it is then added to with materials such as chalk to bulk the tape out. This stretching can be as much as 100% resulting in tape which is often porous. Therefore it is important that when one uses ptfe tape as a sealant for a thread that they ensure they use a high density sealing tape. PTFE tapes or compounds can be used on most liquids and gases without any problems, with the exception of OXYGEN. Tape sealing oxygen has to be approved preferably by a company such as the B.A.M Institute of Berlin, Air Liquide. Failure to use an approved tape can in fact be fatal. Oxygen is a highly volatile gas and should be treated accordingly. To ensure this, COBAS oxygen tape is coloured Green and has the correct approvals. When using white ptfe tape to seal oxygen, one white tape looks very much like another, hence the colour coding. Colour coding is also used when sealing normal gases and even water. Tapes sealing water have to be WBA approved, especially for potable water. PTFE sealing tapes can be used on all threads in most industries, including Oil & Gas pipelines, petrol refining, aerospace, Water industry, chemical industry, food industry, military [ships and land based vehicles ] or application where equipment has to be adjusted frequently. PTFE is chemically inert i.e only alkali metals & fluoronating agents seem to affect it. PTFE in it’s solid form has many applications, including cookware, electrical sleeving and so forth and has frictional properties similar to wet ice.

For more information on Killing The Myths Surrounding PTFT Sealing Tape talk to Cobas UK Ltd