Plastic hoses have a wide range of applications, including food, chemicals, wastewater, ships, cosmetics, etc. Because of its low price, it is favored by major manufacturers. Choosing the correct material of plastic hose is a skill that technical engineers need to master. Hiteck briefly introduces the three types of plastic hoses: TPE, TPU and PU. I hope it will help you in choosing plastic hoses.
What is TPE
TPE is a thermoplastic elastomer material. It not only has the high elasticity, high strength and high resilience of rubber, but also can be injection molded. It is also environmentally friendly, non-toxic and safe. Wide range of hardness and soft to the touch. It has excellent colorability, weather resistance, fatigue resistance and temperature resistance.
TPE material has excellent processing performance and does not require vulcanization. Can be recycled to reduce costs. It can be used for secondary injection molding, covering and bonding with base materials such as PP, PE, PC, PS, ABS, etc., or it can be molded alone.
What is PU
PU is a polymer material. PU is an emerging organic polymer material, known as the “fifth largest plastic”, and is widely used in many fields of the national economy because of its excellent performance.
The application fields of PU material products include laser light industry, chemical industry, electronics, textile, medical care, construction, building materials, automobiles, national defense, aerospace, aviation, etc.
What is TPU
The PU mentioned above is actually the raw material for TPU production. PU can be subdivided according to processing technology into: CPU, TPU, MPU.
TPU is a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer rubber. It mainly has two types, polyester type and polyether type. TPU has a wide hardness range (60HA-85HD). Besides, it is clear and resistant to wear and oil. In addition, TPU has good elasticity. It has been widely used in toys, daily use goods, etc. While there is a typical use in industry, that is TPU hose.
Many fields need to meet environmental protection requirements. But PVC may not be able to meet this. So halogen-free TPU can be a perfect choice.
What is the difference between TPE and TPU?
Burning
TPE material has a pleasant aroma when burned, while TPU material is PU, and burning has a slight smell of ammonia. At the same time, TPU has a slight blasting sound when burning.
Strength and wear resistance
TPU has high strength and good wear resistance, which is obviously better than TPE material.
Softness
TPE material has a wide hardness range (0A-90A). While TPU material has a lower hardness of above 60A. So TPE material feels better and TPU material feels harder.