Looking for ULTEM like material but more hydrophobic and conducting

[matengn]

Hello,
I am looking for suggestions on a material that has similar mechanical characteristics to ULTEM. However, ULTEM is very hydrophilic for my application and not charge dissipating..There are some products form Solvay however, they are much more expensive than the Ketaspire. any suggestions?

ME

 

[Demon3]

People mean different things by hydrophobic. Do you want water to bead on the surface or do you care about water uptake over time in the bulk?

If the former plasma treat the surface with fluoropolymer or add UHMW silicone (

http://www.mutibase.com)

if it can withstand the processing temperature of the Ultem. If the latter that's more or less impossible but you can slow the ingress by using a barrier coating (e.g.

http://www.inmat.com)

For charge dissipation you can use a conductive filler like metal flake / fiber, graphenes, MWCNT or other exotic solutions.

Chris DeArmitt - PhD FRSC CChem
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[matengn]

thanks for the suggestions Chris! I guess its more the former, we don't care about moisture absorption in the bulk. Its more about the surface of the ULTEM. I couldn't find a material with the properties i need to replace ULTEM. It seems surface modification is the way to go. However plasma treating with fluoropolymer might be a little to expensive for high volume manufacturing point of view. Do you have any suggestions for applying a drop of a fluoropolymer and consequently evaporating it type? Not sure how well this kind of technique will adhere to ULTEM or if it will wear over time as we can not have any particulates of any sort in our delicate system.

 

[Compositepro]

Try some Rain-X. It's designed make car windshield glass very hydrophobic. It works on many surfaces. It is a moisture cuing silane solution.

It will not help you with static. Most anti-static coatings and additives (other than carbon black), work by absorbing moisture to increase surface conductivity.

 

[patprimmer]

Stainless steel fibres can be used to create underground mining grade antistatic and are fine enough and in low enough quantities so that reasonable transparency can be retained, however they have no influence on hydrophobic nature.

I am not sure of the durability of Rainex, but it certainly works short term.

Both in combo might do the job.

DSM is the only supplier I know for sure who supplies SS filled materials, however I suspect, Ticona, Solvay, RTP Company and Sabic may do also.

Regards
Pat
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[matengn]

Thank you for the suggestions. I forgot to mention that we can have no fillers inside. Most of the materials are enforced with carbon/glass fibers. We have to have very smooth surfaces, where nothing would wear out over prolonged periods of time. I have alos looked at rain-x but we would need something that can be dispensed via syringe and evaporated or something like that as we deal with very fine features. I found Ketron 1000, which is the closest to what we are looking for but it is beyond expensive!!!

 

[patprimmer]

It now seems to me there is one hell of a lot off essential information missing from this question.

Maybe it is a language thing, but I find your last post somewhat contradictory and confusing.

Regards
Pat
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[matengn]

Hi patprimmer, which part was confusing/contradictory?

 

[patprimmer]

I forgot to mention that we can have no fillers inside. Most of the materials are enforced with carbon/glass fibers. We have to have very smooth surfaces, where nothing would wear out over prolonged periods of time

Regards
Pat
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