What's the reason for the TFE and Kynar- PVDF long lead times
Over the last year, the industry has experienced more challenges than I have seen during my 3 decades experience. In the past I have seen sharp price increases, and I have experienced several shortages, and delivery issues because of plastic resin allocations from plastic resin vendors. This is actually the first instance I have seen all these issues at one time. PTFE (TFE) and PVDF are both on allocation. This pair of resins are in short supply. The PTFE Sheet product PTFE (TFE) as well as PVDF manufacturing requires a mineral called Fluorspar that is mined in Mongolia and China. The worldwide interest in this mineral has risen significantly, as well as supply has tightened. PTFE materials have high temperature resistance, excellent chemical resistance and extremely low co-efficient of friction (slick) and is used throughout a lot of purposes from non-stick fry cookware to ptfe tape for use at home. This particular mineral is the important raw material inside the production of fluo...