How to distinguish thermoplastic elastomers TPE, TPR, TPV, TPU? How to pick? 2018/12/14 19:19

First, the definition of thermoplastic elastomer
        Thermoplastic Elastomer (English Thermoplastic Elastomer) is an environmentally friendly low-carbon composite material with rubber properties (high elasticity, compression set, etc.) and plastic processing characteristics (simple process). (Popular oral: thermoplastic elastomer is a kind of rubber with high elasticity, high resilience, and can be injection-processed. It is environmentally friendly, non-toxic, safe, wide in hardness, excellent in coloring, soft to the touch, weather resistant, Anti-fatigue and temperature resistance, excellent processing performance, no need for vulcanization, can be recycled to reduce costs, can be double-molded, coated with PP, PE, PC, PS, ABS and other base materials, or can be molded separately .)
Due to historical and usage habits, there is no uniform naming of thermoplastic elastomers at home and abroad. In most regions, the English abbreviation TPE is collectively referred to as thermoplastic elastomer.

Second, the distinction of thermoplastic elastomer
       There are many types of thermoplastic elastomers TPE. The types we contact are TPE, TPR, TPU, TPV. Do you think it is very messy? The following explains the relevant knowledge:
1、TPE
       First of all, TPE has such a meaning, that is, a general term for all thermoplastic elastomers, including TPR, TPU, TPV, TPEE, TPO, TPAE, and the like. Chinese is called Thermo-PlasticElastomer.
Usually, the user or the TPE we say is often referred to as a SEBS-based blended modified thermoplastic elastomer. The TPE of the SEBS system has a hardness range of 0 to 95 A and is transparent or natural particles. The burning flame is yellow, yellow or yellow, and the smoke is light and has a fragrant smell.
But in fact, when users encounter TPE, we should choose a suitable TPE type according to his specific requirements, instead of subjective understanding of the TPE of a specific SEBS system.
2、TPR
       TPR,This is the name of the users in Taiwan and even in Asia. The first person used SBS synthetic modification to make a rubber, but the rubber is thermoplastic, meaning "Thermo-plastic rubber" in English, abbreviated as TPR. After that, the SBS family appeared high-performance material SEBS, which was blended and modified, and the manufacturer called TPE to distinguish it from the SBS-modified TPR. However, many users (especially in Taiwan and Asia) still use the term TPR, but do not pay much attention to the differences in SEBS and SBS materials. In fact, there are some performance differences between TPE (TPR) of SEBS and SBS systems. TPR (based on the above analysis, in a sense with TBS of SEBS as a material) looks transparent or white particles with a hardness of 0~95A.
3、TPV
       TPV,It is a blend of PP and EPDM to dynamically vulcanize elastomer. TPV can be regarded as a kind of TPO, but it is given its excellent comprehensive performance due to its special dynamic vulcanization system (TPV has better solvent resistance, high temperature resistance and mechanical strength than TPE of TBS system, TPR). . TPV is currently the most successful and widely used rubber-plastic blend elastomer, so TPV is listed separately. The application of TPV in the automotive industry will be optimistic in the industry. TPV burns the petroleum odor of polypropylene PP, and its appearance is yellow or light yellow particles, usually ranging from 50 to 100A.
4、TPU
       TPU,Thermoplastic polyurethane. It is made by mixing MDI containing NCO functional group and POLYOL and 1.4BG containing OH functional group by kneading. It has good elasticity, good physical properties and various mechanical strengths. Therefore, it is widely used in injection, extrusion, calendering and dissolving into a solution type resin. It is a plastic material often used by plastics manufacturers, and its products cover a range of industrial applications and civilian necessities. The appearance of TPU is transparent particles with a hardness of 65A~80D. The burning has a special smell and has a sizzling sound.