Many cable newcomers are a little confused when they see that TPU cable, TPE cable and TPV cable are all thermoplastic elastomers. What kind of material is this? What are the characteristics? What are the similarities and differences?
The only similarity between TPU cable, TPE cable and TPV cable is that they are all thermoplastic elastomers and have some elastomer performance and functions. However, due to different components and structures, they have their own characteristics in performance.
1. TPU cable TPE cable and TPV cable name:
TPU cable, also known as polyurethane, is the English abbreviation of Thermoplasticpolyurethanes, and its scientific name is thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer rubber. It is mainly divided into polyester type and polyether type, with a hardness range of (60HA-85HD). The material has no softness and hardness, wear resistance, oil resistance, and transparency. It is widely used in daily necessities, sporting goods, toys, decorative materials and other fields.
TPE cable is the English abbreviation of “Thermoplastic Elastomer”. It is a mixture of SEBS/SBS+PP+naphthenic oil+calcium carbonate+additives. It is also known as environmentally friendly soft plastic in the industry. Hardness range (0A-95A). Very soft 0A can be achieved. It is a thermoplastic elastomer material with high resilience and injection molding characteristics. It has a wide range of applications, is environmentally friendly, non-toxic and safe, and has excellent coloring performance. It has a soft touch, excellent processing performance, does not require vulcanization, can be recycled, reduces costs, can be secondary injection molded, and can be coated and bonded with substrates such as PP.PE.PC.PS.ABS, or can be molded alone.
TPV cable is the English abbreviation of Thermoplastic Vulcanizate. TPV is a cross-linked dynamic fully vulcanized thermoplastic elastomer (TPV cable) with olefin rubber (EPDM)/olefin resin (PP) as the main component. Hardness range (45A-95A) is a thermoplastic elastomer particle with UV resistance, weathering resistance, solvent resistance, acid and alkali resistance, excellent insulation performance, chemical properties, physical and mechanical properties, compression deformation performance and high and low temperature resistance. This product can be processed by injection molding, blow molding, extrusion, calendering and other processes, and is widely used in automobiles, consumer industrial products, wires and cables and other industries.
Performance comparison of TPU cable, TPE cable, TPEE cable and TPV cable:
| Item | TPE cable | TPV(TPO)cable | TPU cable | TPEE cable |
| Density (g/cm8) | <1g/cm3 | <1g/cm3 | >1g/cm3 | >1g/cm3 |
| Softness | Excellent | Excellent | Poor, average | Poor, average |
| Mechanical properties | General | Good | Excellent | Best |
| Compression set resistance | Good | Good | Excellent | Good |
| Low temperature properties | Poor | Excellent | Generally good | Excellent |
| Using temperature range | – | -60~135℃ | -20~150℃ | -70~180℃ |
| Resistance to weathering | General, Poor | Excellent | General | Excellent |
| Solvent resistance | General, Poor | Excellent | General | Excellent |
| Chemical resistance | General Poor | Excellent | General | Excellent |
| Processability | General Poor | Excellent | General | Excellent |
| Price | Excellent | Excellent | Medium | Poor |
| Item | Bottom | Medium | TPU | High |
Differences between TPU cable, TPE cable and TPV cable
1. Transparency, TPU is better than TPE, TPE is better than TPV, TPV is not transparent in the market, but it is said that large foreign companies have developed such products;
2. Weather resistance, TPV is better than TPE, TPE is better than TPU;
3. Specific gravity, TPE’s specific gravity varies widely, ranging from 0.89 to 1.3, TPV is around 0.98, and TPU is between 1.0 and 1.4 (reference: the specific gravity of water is 1);
4. Abrasion resistance, TPU is better than TPV, TPV is better than TPE. At present, there are also highly wear-resistant TPE, but there is still a gap with TPU;
5. Oil resistance, TPU (good) is better than TPV (medium), TPE is not oil-resistant;
6. Acid and alkali resistance (weak acid and weak alkali), TPV is better than TPE, TPU is not acid and alkali resistant;
7. Temperature resistance, TPV is better than TPE. TPE is better than TPE-60~90℃, TPV-60~130℃, TPU-60~80℃.
3. TPU cable Application range of TPE cable and TPV cable:
Application field of TPU cable:
1. Automobile industry: Because TPU has good mechanical properties and oil resistance. Wear resistance.
Nowadays, it is increasingly used in the automobile industry. Such as brake pipes, oil pipes, emergency airbags, interior decoration parts, etc.;
2. Cable: TPU is tear-resistant, wear-resistant and bending-resistant. It is also the key to cable performance. In addition, high-grade cables such as control cables and power cables that are resistant to chemicals, hydrolysis, microbial decomposition, easy to process, and easy to dye, use TPU to protect the covering materials of cables with complex designs, and their applications are becoming more and more extensive;
3. Pipes: can be made into oil pipes, water pipes, compressed air pipes, pneumatic component air compression pipes, etc.
4. Shoes and sports equipment: TPU is the fourth generation of sole materials after rubber, PVC, and SBS. It has greater elasticity and better mechanical strength, better wear resistance, tear resistance, bending, and stronger friction, and has become a variety of special soles and upper materials with extremely high requirements, such as football shoes, ice skates, mountaineering shoes, work shoes, etc. It can also be used as the spherical material of football, handball, basketball, volleyball, and auxiliary materials of various sports equipment;
5. Special-shaped materials: Since TPU materials can be processed into various shapes through plastic processing methods such as injection molding, extrusion, and calendering, they have various oil resistance.
I believe that everyone must have a deeper understanding of the differences and advantages and disadvantages of TPU cables, TPE cables and TPV cables. TST CABLES specializes in high-temperature cables, flexible flat cables, UL wire，waterproof cables, drag chain cables\TRVVSP\TPU\pur, industrial network cables, TPU spring stretched spiral cables, encoder cables and high-flexible cable processing and customization, etc. If you have any needs or questions, you are welcome to send an email to communicate with our cable engineers for consultation and cooperation (email: lixiangchao@testeck.com, please state your country, your industry, your needs in the email, and we can also provide you with free samples)
