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Terminology

Abrasive
Lat. abrasio = to scrape off / to wear away by friction

Application
Lat. applicare = to affix, to join, e.g. the “joining” of coatings and substrates.

Adhesion tendency
adhesion (Lat. adhaerere = to stick to), also called adhesion power
The low adhesion tendency – better yet, the non-stick effect – of fluoropolymers such as PTFE, PFA or FEP is dependent on their extremely low surface energy.

Barrier coat
A micropore-free layer on the surface of a substrate that prevents water vapor from reaching the substrate surface.

Bionics
Bionics (also known as biomimetics, biomimicry, biognosis, or bionical creativity engineering) focuses on the decoding of “inventions of natural life” and their innovative application to technology. Bionics is an interdisciplinary area where natural scientists and engineers work together with representatives of other fields such as architects and designers, if need be.
The English term bionics was coined by Jack E. Steele, a US Air Force colonel, during a conference at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, in 1960.  In German, the word for bionics is “Bionik,” a portmanteau word comprising the words “Biologie” [biology] and “Technik” [technology], implying that principles derived from biology can be used for technical applications. Bionics is a systematic approach to learning from nature, which separates it from mere natural inspirations.
    
DIN EN ISO 9001:2000
A standard for quality management systems. It describes which requirements an organization’s management needs to fulfill in order to satisfy a specific quality management standard. It can be used both as an informative guideline for implementation within an organization, and to prove certain standards to third parties. EN ISO 9001 sets the requirements for a quality management system (QM system) in case an organization needs to prove its capabilities for providing products that satisfy customer demands as well as regulatory requirements.

Diffusion (Lat. diffundere = to spread, to pour)
A fundamental problem immanent to all plastics is the phenomenon of permeability and gas diffusion, i.e. the molecular permeation by liquids or gases.

DLC coating
Super-hard DLC coatings are increasingly gaining importance, thanks to their unique and exceptional wear-, friction- and corrosion-reducing properties.  

Rhenotherm Mini Parts GmbH provides DLC coatings on a job-coating basis and is a certified job coater according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2000.

Order brochure “DLC coating”

ECTFE copolymer made of ethylene and chlorotrifluoroethylene
Due to its high resistance to many chemicals, ECTFE is used as a coating material for chemical appliances, containers, etc.

Rhenotherm Plastic Coating GmbH provides ECTFE coatings on a job-coating basis and is a certified job coater according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2000.

Order brochure “ECTFE coating”

Elastomer
Elastomers are dimensionally stable, yet elastically deformable plastics with a glass transition temperature that lies below room temperature. The plastics can be deformed through tensile and compressive stress but return to their original, undeformed state once stresses are released. Elastomers are used as material for tires, rubber bands, gaskets, etc.

ETFE
Ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene (abbreviation ETFE) is a fluorinated copolymer.
Due to its high resistance to many chemicals, ETFE is used as a coating material for chemical appliances, containers and component parts.

Rhenotherm Plastic Coating GmbH provides ETFE coatings on a job-coating basis and is a certified job coater according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2000.

Order brochure “ETFE coating”

FDA, BGA
FDA = US Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration, an agency of the US Department of Health and Human Services, is the product accreditation authority for food and pharmaceutical products in the United States. It was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland.

BGA = Bundesgesundheitsamt [German Federal Health Department], replaced by several institutions since 1994. The Bundesgesundheitsamt was founded in 1952 as successor of the Reichsgesundheitsamt [National Health Department]. Headquartered in Berlin, it was the central government research institution for public health matters in the Federal Republic of Germany.

FEP
Fluoroplastic fluorinated ethylene propylene
FEP is one of the three polymers with similar properties that are known under the brand name Teflon®. Like other polymer coatings, e.g. with PTFE and PFA, a coating with Teflon® FEP improves non-stick and anti-friction characteristics. During the FEP coating process, the material is applied, e.g. in powder form, following mechanical and/or chemical pretreatment and is subsequently densified through sintering (temperature treatment). FEP is used as non-stick coating for many technical applications.

Rhenotherm Plastic Coating GmbH provides FEP coatings on a job-coating basis and is a certified job coater according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2000.

Order brochure “FEP coating”

Cross cut test
Test method for assessing adhesive strength

Hydrophilic
Hydrophilic comes from Greek and means water loving (ὕδωρ / hydor/"hydros" - water, φιλος / phílos – loving), meaning that a material is attracting water. The opposite of hydrophilicity is hydrophobicity. A hydrophilic surface of a solid body has a high surface energy. A water drop disseminates.

Hydrophobic
The term hydrophobic comes from Greek: ὕδωρ hydōr means water, φόβος phóbos means fear. Hydrophobic can thus be translated as “water repellent.” A water drop does not disseminate.

Lotus effect
The lotus effect, also known as lotos effect, describes the low wettability of a surface, similar to that observed on the lotus plant. The microstructured surface of the plant’s leaf cannot be wetted by water and many other aqueous liquids. The liquids form drops that do not cling to the surface.  Even materials such as powdered pigment, which adhere to most common surfaces, show reduced adhesive strength and can be washed away easily. Thus, the lotus effect describes the self-cleaning properties of hierarchically structured surfaces due to the interplay of low wettability and reduced contact area. Other plants such as tropaeolum, cabbage, the common reed, columbine, tulips, lady’s mantle and bananas also exhibit this effect.

Order brochure “Plasma coating”

Nanometer (nm)
One millionth of a millimeter or one thousandth of a micrometer (µm)
As a comparison: A hair is about 0.1 mm – one tenth of a millimeter.

Nanoparticle
Nanoparticles are clusters of a few to several thousand atoms or molecules. The name stems from their size, which is usually between 1 and 100 nanometers. One nanometer is 1 x 10-9 = 0.000000001 meter. The prefix “nano” comes from the Greek “nanos,” which means “dwarf” or “dwarfish.”

Surface energy
The surface energy of solid body surfaces can be determined through contact angle measurements using several liquids with known surface energies.


Surface tension
Surface tension is a material property used to characterize liquids. Mercury, for instance, has a high surface tension (484 mN/m), whereas oils have a low surface tension (about 30 mN/m). The surface tension of distilled water is 72 mN/m.

PEEK
Polyetheretherketone (PEEK). Highly temperature-resistant thermoplastic. The melting point lies around 335-343°C. Polyetheretherketones  are resistant to nearly all organic and inorganic chemicals. PEEK is highly mar resistant and not very abrasive. PEEK coatings can be applied in both powder and dispersion form. PEEK coatings are especially suited for applications that require a combination of corrosion resistance at high temperatures and high diffusion resistance.

Rhenotherm Plastic Coating GmbH provides PEEK coatings on a job-coating basis and is a certified job coater according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2000.

Order brochure “PEEK coating”

PFA
Perfluoroalkoxy (PFA) is a type of fluorocarbon polymer with properties similar to polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and fluoroplastic fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP). During the PFA coating process, the material is applied, e.g. in powder form, following mechanical and/or chemical pretreatment and is subsequently densified through sintering (temperature treatment). PFA is used as non-stick coating for many technical applications.

Rhenotherm Plastic Coating GmbH provides PFA coatings on a job-coating basis and is a certified job coater according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2000.

Order brochure “PFA coating”

Permeability (Lat. permeare = to penetrate)
Permeability is the property of a porous material that allows permeates (liquids or gases) to pass through its pore system. This property can be determined through experimental tests and is dependent on the specific characteristics of the porous medium (pore distribution, transmissibility of the pores etc.).

Plasma polymerization
Plasma polymerization is a process during which gaseous monomers, excited by plasma, deposit as cross-linked layers on freely-selectable substrates.

PTFE
Polytetrafluoroethylene (abbreviation PTFE, sometimes also polytetraflouroethene) is a fully fluorinated polymer. This plastic is commonly referred to under the trade name of Teflon® by the company DuPont.  Other commonly used trade names of other PTFE manufacturers are Dyneon PTFE (formerly Hostaflon) and Gore-Tex for PTFE membranes. The Teflon® PTFE coating is applied following mechanical and/or chemical pretreatment and is subsequently densified through sintering (temperature treatment). Teflon® PTFE is used as non-stick coating for many technical applications.

Rhenotherm Plastic Coating GmbH provides PTFE coatings on a job-coating basis and is a certified job coater according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2000.

Order brochure “Teflon® PTFE coating”

Primer (adhesion promoter, base coat)
A typical characteristic of coatings is that a so-called primer, or a primer system consisting of several layers, is applied in order to achieve better adhesion.  This means that adhesion promoter additives such as pigments, heat stabilizers or various binding resins are incorporated in the coating systems.

Powder coating
Powder coating is a coating process used to coat electrical conductive material with coating powder. During the process, the powder is applied electrostatically or tribostatically to the substrate and is then cured under heat. Prior to this process, the material needs to be pre-treated by removing any oil or grease and, in some cases, by applying an anti-corrosive agent. The burning-in temperatures may vary greatly depending on the application. The burning-in process results in a permanent adhesion (purely mechanical fusion) and an evenly thick coating, which is achieved in part through coagulation (quasi-sintering) and in part through surface fusion of the particles.
The powder can also be applied via fluidized bed sintering. During this process, the heated material is briefly immersed in a plastic powder that has been fluidized by compressed air. Due to the heat, the material causes the powder to melt, forming a plastic coating on the material surface.

Rhenotherm Plastic Coating GmbH provides job coatings with various powders.

Order brochure “Anti-corrosive coatings”

Roughness (surface quality)
Surface quality is a term describing roughness in surface inspections.

Ra: average roughness (mean arithmetic deviation from the mean line)
Rz: mean roughness depth (arithmetic mean of the measured roughness depths)

Salt spray test
The salt spray test is used to define the corrosion resistance of a surface.

Silicones
Silicones (singular: silicone) is the name for a group of synthetic polymers that feature net-like and/or molecular chain-link connections made up of silicon and oxygen atoms. Hydrocarbon rests (usually methyl groups) saturate the remaining free valence electrons of the silicon. The name was introduced at the beginning of the 20th century by Frederick Stanley Kipping (1863-1949), an English chemist. Scientific literature frequently refers to silicones as poly(organo)siloxanes, or simply siloxanes.
Due to their typical inorganic basic structure on the one hand and their organic rests on the other, silicones hold an interim position between inorganic and organic compounds, in particular between silicates and organic polymers. In a sense, they are hybrids that possess a unique spectrum of properties that no other plastic achieves.

Silicone is not to be confused with the silicone component silicon. The similar spelling often leads to faulty translations.

Sintering
The solidification of crystalline, granular or powdery substances through the coalescence of crystallites at correspondingly high temperatures.  

Thermal spraying (surface coating process)
Among the different surface coating techniques, thermal spraying is the most versatile and is therefore used in all areas of industry and trade. During this process, the feedstock material is melted, accelerated in a gas stream to form spray particles, and sprayed onto the substrate.

Fully fluorinated
Polytetrafluoroethylene (abbreviation PTFE, also known as polytetrafluoroethene) is a fully fluorinated polymer. This plastic is commonly referred to under the trade name of Teflon® by the company DuPont.

Water contact angle
A water drop on the surface of a solid body will retract to a certain degree. The more the drop retracts, the lower the surface energy of the solid body and the higher the water contact angle. A water contact angle of > 100° characterizes a non-stick surface.