Published: February 12, 2025

Choosing Wisely: Navigating Material Selection for Your Application

Have you ever struggled to find a material that meets all of your requirements? Or maybe you’re looking to replace a material but aren’t quite sure which properties may not be as important to keep the same? While solving these problems may not have a perfect solution, Zippertubing® welcomes you to a multi-part series on material selection. Some of our top selling polymeric materials will be put to the test to better explain the properties and help you make a more informed decision when you need it!

In this multi-part series, we will be evaluating a selection of materials through short-term testing at various high and low temperatures, exposure to extreme weather conditions (a summer in Phoenix, AZ), chemical resistance and abrasion resistance. Typically, when looking for a material, there is more than one requirement that must be met. In the next few sections, we will talk more in depth about where various industries and applications fall within these criteria and explain the necessity of this data.

High/Low Temperature Testing

Materials selected for high/low temperature applications, must be able to withstand the temperatures likely to be encountered for the suited application. The requirements for many of these will usually need a continuous temperature range for operation. If a material cannot withstand the needed operating temperature, then the product will fail prematurely. If this happens, it could result in catastrophic failure of the application.

Figure 1. Nine common industries requiring high temperature sustaining materials, with some of the respective applications.

Figure 2. Nine common industries requiring low temperature sustaining materials, with some of the respective applications.

Weather Exposure

Weather exposure requires materials to be resistant to UV, temperature and moisture. The importance of the material properties here, is critical for performing the desired function. Not only do these materials have to maintain mechanical properties, but appearance (i.e. not faded or discolored) is usually desired to be maintained for several years.

Chemical/Oil Resistance

For applications that require materials to be subjected to environments with harsh chemicals, it is important that they are compatible, as incompatibility can lead to degradation. This degradation will ultimately shorten the longevity, reliability and safety of the material.

Figure 4. Nine common industries requiring chemical or oil resisting materials, with some of the respective applications.

Abrasion Resistance

Abrasion resistance is an important aspect, as the wrong material implemented could cause quite detrimental consequences. If the durability in an abrasive environment is not an inherent property of the materials selected, the performance and safety will all be compromised.

Figure 5. Nine common industries requiring abrasion resisting materials, with some of the respective applications.

From this brief overview of the types of applications that require stringent properties, you can see there are multiple applications that have overlap with these selected properties. This is what makes material selection difficult, as it is hard to meet all requirements with a single material. But understanding which properties are most important, can help to select the best material for the job. Stay tuned for the coming installments where we will compare 8 popular materials used in Zippertubing® products.

Contact us today to learn more.