Re: [amsat-bb] Kapton Tape

[Bruce Bostwick <lihan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Hello,
>
>Quick question.  Can anyone tell me why kapton tape
>and film is used on spacecraft?  I was looking at
>the P3D photos and even the wire bundles are wrapped
>with this tape.
>
>Thanks,
>Greg,  KF4BWQ

Kapton (tm) is a fantastically heat-resistant polymer that is used in 
almost endless aerospace applications.  (The gold wrapping on the 
Apollo LM descent stage was a Kapton/Mylar/aluminum sandwich.)  It 
will withstand temperatures up to 7000 F with almost no damage and 
makes excellent wire insulation anywhere wiring might be exposed to 
intense heat.  Teflon, by comparison, is only good to about 700 F at 
which point it starts to cold-flow really bad, and pure PTFE Teflon 
is rather porous as well .. learned that the hard way when I tried to 
make a packed column for a gas chromatograph out of PTFE tubing -- 
ended up using FEP which fortunately was compatible with the samples 
we were running ..

73 de N5VB

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