Non-stick frying pan
A PTFE-containing coating helps food release from the inside of a metal pan.
Material
Non-stick coating: PTFE
Material selection rationale
- Low surface energy
- Helps reduce food sticking to the coated surface.
- Thin surface layer
- Provides release behaviour while the metal body supplies structure and conducts heat.
- Coating-to-metal interface
- Low adhesion at the food-facing surface is useful, but adhesion to the pan is essential, requiring the specified preparation and layer system.
How it becomes a product
- Prepare the metal: The pan surface is prepared for the coating system.
- Apply and cure layers: Formulated coating layers are applied, for example by spraying, then heat-cured under controlled factory conditions. Primer and surface layers perform different jobs; their factory curing sequence is not reproduced by normal cooking.
Preparation routes
Tetrafluoroethene route
Addition polymerisation. Tetrafluoroethene builds the PTFE chain. An emulsion-polymerisation route supplies fine PTFE particles in an aqueous dispersion for formulated coatings. Addition consumes the C=C bond while retaining fluorine substituents. Coating release behaviour arises from the polymer surface, not from unreacted tetrafluoroethene.
Industrial initiators and dispersion controls support polymerisation. Coating makers combine the polymer with other ingredients; applying a coating is a separate manufacturing step. The traced dispersion is one product form; PTFE powder processing and cookware coating are distinct operations.