ZOTEK F30 … Cool material for aircraft refrigerator insulation

Ipeco the world-leading manufacturer of aircraft crew seating and galley equipment has specified ZOTEK F 30 PVDF Foam for insulating its refrigerator inserts and associated piping.

Inherently flame retardant, ZOTEK F is thought to be the only foam insulation material to pass the stringent FAR 25.856 (a) "Radiant Panel Test" a decisive factor in Ipeco's specification decision.

A unique and beneficial feature of ZOTEK® F foams is its ability to be thermally moulded into complex three-dimensional shapes. The material can be vacuum formed, compression-moulded and thermally bonded to create many unique functional parts.

Refrigerator sides are insulated with ZOTEK F 30 in sheet form, while the 8mm pipes are insulates in tubular form material.

Thermostatic expansion valve insulation parts are fabricated for IPECO in two different ways; for larger numbers of parts, compression moulding is used, allowing efficient use of material, whereas machining directly from a block of ZOTEK® F 30 PVDF Foam involves lower set-up cost.

ZOTEK® F 30 is white in colour and operates effectively over a wide temperature range (-40°C to +110°C). It has a thermal conductivity, at 40°C, of 0.038 W/m/K and exhibits both low water vapour transmission and low vapour absorption.

The material is proven to be in excess of 90% closed cell and has a density of 30 kg/m3 (1.9 lb/ft3)