TPX™ (Polymethylpentene)

Polymethylpentene

Overview

TPX™ is a 4-methylpentene-1-based olefin copolymer.
TPX™ has a unique molecular structure. Although TPX™ is a crystalline olefin polymer, it shows transparency. Because of its excellent heat-resistance, release property and chemical resistance, TPX™ is used for industrial materials, including mandrels and sheaths in the manufacture of high-pressure rubber hose, mold cups to create LED light and other applications such as release film on FPC manufacturing process and release paper in the manufacture of synthetic leather.
Furthermore, TPX™ possesses a lowest density among thermoplastic polymers and then provides the molded articles with lower weight. This leads to reduce the environmental load for transportation. It is also noted that TPX™ is a halogen-free polymer denoted as environmentally-friendly material.
TPX™ is also used for food-related applications such as food wraps, food preservation packs, baking carton and microwave oven tableware.

Heat resistance

TPX™ has a high melting point in the range from 220 ℃ to 240 ℃ and a high vicat softening temperature. Hence, it can be used for high temperature application. However, as heat distortion temperature of TPX™ is almost same as that of polypropylene, the application under highstress environment needs to be carefully considered.

Releasability and Non-compatibility

The surface tension of TPX™ (24mN/m) is very low and this value is the secondary lowest as compared to fluorine polymers. Hereby, TPX™ shows excellent releasability against various materials. TPX™ is used as release material in hardening process of thermosetting resins (urethane, epoxy etc.) Furthermore, since TPX™ shows incompatibility against thermoplastic resins (PET, PP etc.) it is used to create a porous structure in PET or PP membranes.

Transparency

Although TPX™ is a crystalline polymer, it exhibits excellent transparency (Haze : < 5 % ) and light transmittance. Especially TPX™ is used for optical analysis cells because of the higher UV transmittance as compared to glass and other transparent polymers.

Chemical resistance

Because of its stable C-C bonds, TPX™ has better chemical resistance as compared to polycarbonate and acrylic polymer. TPX™ basically shows excellent chemical resistance particularly against acids, alkalis and alcohol.
For this reason, TPX™ is used in various applications which require chemical resistance, such as cosmetic container caps and tubes, experimental apparatus and analytical cells.

Gas permeability

TPX™ has a characteristic of excellent gas permeability derived from its molecular structure.
Hence, TPX™ is widely used for gas permeative applications such as gas separation membranes.

Low dielectric property

Since TPX™ has a non-polar structure; its dielectric property is almost same as fluorine polymers. It should be noted that dielectric property of TPX™ is hardly affected by frequency and TPX™ can be injection-molded unlike PTFE. TPX™ shows stable dielectric property in the wide range of frequency.

Low density

The density of TPX™ is the lowest (830 kg/m3) among thermoplastic polymers, and its specific volume is larger than that of other transparent polymers. For this reason, it is possible to reduce the weight of injection-molded articles by using TPX™ or also TPX™ compounds.

Steam resistance

TPX™ shows a very low water absorbance and therefore the dimension of a TPX product is hardly affected by water absorbance. Furthermore, since TPX™ does not hydrolyze in boiling water, it can be used for experimental apparatus and animal cages which require the steam sterilization.

Food sanitation

Hygienic approved TPX™ grades (JPN standards, FDA regulations and EU regulations) are also available and they are used for food wraps and microwave oven tableware.

Low refractive index

The refractive index of TPX™ is 1.463nD20, lower than fluorine polymers.

PDF Catalog

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2 MB
English
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486 KB
TPX Film
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432 KB
TPX Mandrel

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