As PEEK engineering plastics have excellent physical and chemical properties, are resistant to high temperatures, corrosion, radiation, and do not produce toxic gases after combustion. They are also biocompatible and very suitable for medical implants. They are widely used in aerospace, medical, automotive parts, humanoid robots and other fields. However, after understanding that the PEEK price of engineering plastics is very expensive among all hot-melt plastics, what is the reason for such a high peek price? We analyze it from the following content:
The three main blocks of PEEk are fluorinated ketone which descends from a difficult process, mining fluorspar, fluorination at high temperature, and HF electrochemical synthesis to get an intermediate in liquid state.
The case of few managers is an example of a polluting and energy-intensive chemical industry that consumes significant amounts of oil, up to 35% of that amount, and the cost for complying with the environmental regulations is typically not less than 20% of the total cost. Therefore, the cost of manufacturing the chemical among industry managers varies between $8.75-$11.25 per kg.
PEEK's manufacture nowadays is time-consuming (discontinuous method) batchwise using which possible is 50-60% of a raw material. Hence, this TBP type possesses similar 50-60% efficiency to the undiscontinuous processes of polymerization.
The intrinsic nature of PEEK molecular weight development at extremes of very high temperature (350-400°C) and viscosity requires expensive extruder apparatus with USD 1000-5000 depreciation.
To productive costs also stands out transmitting electricity and steam, which make up approximately from 20 to 25 of the overall peek price cost.
The polymer has high strength to weight ratio hence, for it to undergo testing, it requires 2-4 years to meet the certification standard for critical designs such as those that go to the aerospace, automotive, and electronics hardware.
An additional time lead held by industry management to run their estimations is one of the reasons for the peek prices of their products to be on the premium side.
Now, as an example for a Chinese merchant, the value can be around $90 and the customer will pay in USA or UK (victrex and evonik )even higher, $90-$150 and $100-$160, respectively.
The Indian manufacturer can pay between 95$ and 140$ for the aforecited reasons. Nevertheless, the global cost is expected to fall as the production technologies propel further and the large-scale economies are put in place. In addition, PEEK material could be commercially broken into more fields to fully exploit its ultra high mechanical properties.
