TPUs are used in a variety of different applications and products. Marketplace applications call for TPUs when desiring plastics that are flexible and resistant to the elements, including products such as wheels, footwear, hosing, piping and tubing, rafts, phone cases, and more.
TPU's ability to be melted and extruded lends itself to the emerging industry of 3D printing. In addition, TPU can be extruded as a filament through a printer head and deposited in fused filament deposition printing or can be used for techniques such as selective laser sintering or 3D inkjet printing.
Benefits of TPU
The advantages of TPU are many in various market uses. Due to the customization and variability of exchanging different compounds in the hard, soft, and chain extension components of polyurethane, TPUs can be assembled in a variety of ways to best suit the needs of the application.
Tpu can be customized for its target environment-combining its tensile strength and flexibility-to create ideal, customizable thermoplastics for low temperature, aggressive environments and applications.
Polyester-based Tpu has high wear resistance and chemical resistance, as well as good tensile strength, making it an ideal choice for applications such as auto parts and industrial machine parts. Polyether-based Tpu is highly flexible over a wide temperature range, and has high hydrolysis and microbial resistance, so it can be used in medical applications.
A large number of customizable options and easy-to-use TPUs make them perfect for many applications.