Polyether ether ketone (PEEK) is a colorless organic thermoplastic polymer in the polaryletherketone (PAEK) family, used in engineering applications. Polyetherketone (PEK) and Polyertheretherketone (PEEK) are durable high performance engineered plastics whose structures combine both ether and ketone groups. High performance engineered plastics like PEEK plastic products outperform metals in 5 key areas in cutting-edge engineering technology.
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5 Key Blows PEEK Plastic over Metal
Engineed plastics technology so advanced that it replaces steel, aluminum, brass, bronze and other metals providing product design and manufacturing solutions never thought possible before.
Blow 1. Weight and Noise Reduction
| Engineered thermoplastic Polyether ether ketone (PEEK) plastic is ideal for replacing metals due to the weight reduction component even over light metals such as aluminum, titanium and magnesium. In turn the reduction in weight of PEEK plastic, along with dramatic noise reduction, has opened the doors to numerous contemporary engineering and industrial design applications. |
Blow 2. Enhanced Performance
| Polyetheretherketone PEEK plastic provides performance enhanced products by extending service life; as well as, resistant to corrosion with lower coefficient of friction. In dynamic applications, such as bearings or seals, PEEK provides increase load capacity and higher RPM. PEEK is capable of operating at service temperatures up to 480°F. |
Blow 3. Greater Design Freedom
| Polyetheretherketone PEEK offers product and manufacturing engineers unlimited design freedom and amazing processing versatility; whether it be injection molding, machining or a combination of both processes. This allows for complex geometries minimizing labor intensive post-machining steps. |
Blow 4. High Purity Environment
| PEEK plastic materials, including Glass-Filled, PEEK-HT (High Temperature), and PEEK-UHP (Ultra-High Purity) are excellent knock-out contenders for metal replacement in many market areas including food processing, biomedical, semi-conductor, and medical device applications. |
Blow 5. Total Lower System Cost
| Polyetheretherketone PEEK helps engineers improve on performance while reducing total system cost in metal to plastic conversions. Capitalizing on weight reduction, design flexibility, and environmental compatibility. |
PEEK Properties Outperform
Applications include wear components for industrial equipment such as seal rings, bushings, bearings, piston parts, pumps, HPLC columns, compressor plate valves, and cable insulation. Polyetheretherketone PEEK is one of few plastics compatible with ultra-high vacuum applications. Applications that are subject to extreme environments PEEK is highly resistant to thermal degradation and well as attack by both organic and aqueous environments.
Melt Extrusion Manager at International Polymer Engineering, Jonathan Jurgaitis on LinkedIn noted,
“Benefits: high heat resistance, highly chemical resistant, works well in vacuum environments i.e. space, hard and stiff.
Used a lot in metal replacement in medical applications as well as other light weighting applications than can handle the cost.”
A growing list of industries impacted by PEEK material include oil and gas, wind energy, industrial, medical devices, aerospace, defense, fluid handling, analytical, and transportation.
And the winner is….PEEK Plastic!
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