Application of PTFE woven fibre

Abstract

THE IMPROVED BEARING PROPERTIES of PTFE woven fabrics were first discovered by an American consultant engineer, Charles White, in the mid‐1950s, when attempting to modify the frictional properties of automotive steering and suspension joints. The woven material had just become available in small quantities for chemical filtration purposes and was immediately christened ‘dragon's fur’ due to its heat resistance and difficulty in handling because of its low friction characteristics. Its application by White to the surfaces of relatively high friction reinforced thermoset resin bearings succeeded beyond expectation as not only was the friction at the interface drastically reduced but also the pressure that the woven PTFE structure was capable of sustaining was far in excess of that normally accepted as the limit for bulk PTFE resin. White further developed his invention by obtaining compound fabrics with the PTFE yarns predominating on the bearing face but with bondable yarns of glass, cotton or terylene woven into the reverse side thus overcoming the other major problem with PTFE namely, that of bonding it to a substrate. Worldwide patent coverage was obtained and in 1963 a licence was granted to Ampep Industrial Products giving exclusive right to manufacture bearings in the UK and also non‐exclusive rights in other European territories.

Citation

(1974), "Application of PTFE woven fibre", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 46 No. 7, pp. 22-22. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb035174