The Small TPE Foot Pad Has So Many Details

Cars carry our lives, are tools for mobility and travel, and are also participants and recorders of our lives. Everyone has their own special feelings for cars, and their protection of cars is also different. For car floor mats, everyone's original intention is to protect the car interior and facilitate cleaning. However, as the price of cars increases, people are taking better care of their cars.

What is TPE?

TPE (Thermoplastic Elastomer) is a thermoplastic elastomer material with high strength, high resilience, and injection molding characteristics. It has a wide range of applications, is environmentally friendly, non-toxic and safe, and has excellent colorability.

What are the advantages of TPE foot pads?

Compared to the traditional leather large-surround foot pads that use splicing and synthesis production processes, TPE foot pads can be molded in one mold, eliminating the use of additives such as glue, so that the foot pad material is not affected by foreign objects, so there is no odor and no irritation to the human body.

TPE also has a good waterproof effect and can be directly washed with water for easier care.

At present, TPE foot pads are divided into two types: injection molding and blister molding:

There are many TPE foot pads on the market that use blister molding, while the original car manufacturers all use injection molding. The mold cost of developing a car model with blister molding is lower, while the mold cost of developing a car model with injection molding is higher. What is the reason why the original car manufacturers still insist on choosing injection molding despite the cost difference? The main reason is that the differences between injection molding and blister molding are huge:

Differences in raw materials

Injection molding requires 100% pure TPE materials for development, while the blister molding process often contains TPO or TPV and other TPE-like mixtures. The purity of the blister molding material is not as good as that of injection molding. Therefore, the one-piece injection molded full TPE foot pad will have a more flexible texture, closer to rubber, and a better foot feel. The blister molding process is harder, similar to plastic, and the heels will feel tired when driving long distances.

Difference in durability

Injection molded TPE foot pads have resilience. If they are deformed in the later stage of use, just pour boiling water on them or expose them to the sun for a certain period of time to restore their original shape and fit. However, the blister process foot pads will curl up after 1-2 years of use and cannot be restored.

Distinguish between full TPE foot pads and surface TPE foot pads

There are currently two types of TPE foot pads on the market, one is injection molded full TPE foot pads, and the other is surface synthetic TPE foot pads.

Injection molded full TPE foot pads, as the name suggests, are 100% made of TPE material for injection molding. This type of foot pad is molded in one piece, with high development costs. No adhesive is required during processing, which can ensure the airtightness, waterproofness and environmental protection of the foot pad.

Surface synthetic TPE foot pads only use the TPE layer on the surface, and other materials such as elastic foam layer are used in the middle. In essence, they are no different from leather surrounds. The development cost is low, and they are synthesized by stamping or glue. The integrity is not good, and the synthetic material is still easy to produce odor at high temperatures.

The foot pad may seem like a small thing, but in fact, its impact is very large. The quality of a foot pad can affect all aspects of the air in the car, health, driving safety, etc. So don't be careless when choosing, or be cautious.

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