ETFE – The trending facade material, making the trendiest buildings

Ethylene-Tetrafluoroethylene copolymer (ETFE) is one of the trending innovative cladding materials in the market which is known primarily through iconic projects such as Eden in Cornwall UK, Allianz Arena Stadium in Munich and National Aquatic Centre a.k.a.Watercube in Beijing. Being very thin, lightweight and when used in air-filled cushion system its enormous strength and a range of adaptive environmental attributes render ETFE as a very creative solution to many projects.

ETFE has been known since the 1940s, which was an accidental spin-off man-made fluoropolymer during DuPont’s research program to develop an insulation material for industrial machinery that was resistant to friction and abrasion, immune to radiation and effective at both extremely high and low temperatures. Until 1970 it was not commercialized after which it was used in a wide range of applications in the petroleum, automotive, aerospace and nuclear industries.

ETFE is used as an extruded film to be used as a light weight cladding material. It can be both used on façade or roof applications where the detailing is similar. Thickness of the ETFE skin can be as thin as 100microns ranging up to 250 microns which is designed by the ETFE specialist as per design requirements. The film can either be used in the form of an inflated multilayer pillow (named as Pneumatic system or Air filled cushion system) or as a single skin when tensioned against a supporting curved structure in the manner of a tent.