Non-stick coatings are all around you, helping you do many of day-to-day things we all take for granted.
In this article we’ll take a look at how your daily life could be very different if non-stick coatings had never been discovered by Roy J. Plunkett in 1938.
Non-stick coatings are used in springs in a car’s suspension. Imagine having to drive over speed bumps with no proper suspension system in your car. It certainly would be a lot different to the smooth journeys you’re currently used to.
MORE UNCOMFORTABLE HOSPITAL BEDS
If you’ve ever had a stay in hospital, you may not have paid much attention to the ease of which the sides of your bed were put up and down. However, it would be much more difficult and annoying for everyone involved if they kept sticking and couldn’t be moved so freely and quickly.
It’s not just hospital bed frames that use non-stick coatings. The bed sheets are also treated with a substance that helps keep the mattress dry and patients cool.
YOUR FOOD COULD TASTE QUITE DIFFERENT
How many times have you bought a loaf of bread recently only to discover it’s all burnt at the bottom?
And how often do you tuck into scrambled eggs or a nice steak and have to pick out lots of little burnt bits as you eat?
One of the main applications of non-stick coatings is in food production, bakeware and cookware. Thanks to Mr. Plunkett you don’t have to have that lingering burnt taste every time you eat a sandwich at lunchtime or cook yourself a fry-up at the weekend.
HAVING TO WEAR CREASED CLOTHES
If there were no non-stick coatings, ironing clothes would be more of a problem. Burning them completely would be one option, or perhaps everyone would just be walking around quite happily in crushed, unkempt clothes.
THE DAILY NEWS WOULD BE MORE DIFFICULT TO READ
PTFE (a type of non-stick coating) is taken in scrap form and ground down for use in printing ink to make it flow better.
Can you imagine reading a newspaper where the ink had been getting stuck as it went through the presses?
YOUR CLOTHES COULD NEED WASHED MORE OFTEN
Non-stick coatings are also used to repel molecules from attaching to our clothes. While they’re not 100% efficient at this, your attire could be a lot messier without them and your washing pile at home would soon get out of control.
Your dentist has probably told you on many occasions that flossing is good for your teeth in that it prevents cavities and decay. Dental floss also uses non-stick material to help it glide ffortlessly between your teeth.
POORER VISIBILITY WHEN DRIVING
Non-stick materials are also used on wiper blades. When the rain, sleet or snow is coming down fast, the last thing you want is your windscreen wiper blades sticking rather than wiping.
It’s not difficult to picture the consequences of poor driving visibility. You know that annoying noise and smearing that happens when your blades are on their last legs? That would be the norm without non-stick coatings.
UNSTABLE BUILDINGS AND BRIDGES
Buildings and bridges are subject to movement caused by high winds, temperature changes and even seismic activity. Non-stick coatings help make sure this movement is allowed for in a stable way via slide bearings so the things that have been constructed around us remain safe.
Without non-stick coatings, the man-made world around us would be more susceptible to damage, making it more dangerous and costly to maintain.
