TPE and silica gel are two different kinds of materials. Please take a fancy to plastic technology and interpret the difference between TPE and silica gel for you.
　　Silicone is a thermosetting elastomer, has the advantages of safety, non-toxic, insoluble in water and any solvent, non-toxic and tasteless, stable chemical properties, except strong alkali, hydrofluoric acid and not react with any substances, high adsorption performance, good thermal stability, stable chemical properties, the earliest widely used in adult products, food products.
　　TPE is a kind of thermoplastic elastomer, with environmental protection, non-toxic, easy to color, feel smooth and soft, hardness range of 0a-120a, simple processing molding, no need for vulcanization processing, can be recycled, reduce the cost. It can be bonded with PP, PE, PC, PS, ABS and other plastic materials (secondary injection), or it can be molded separately.

　　The difference between TPE and silicone materials：

　　1、TPE is a general name of a variety of elastomer materials with rubber elasticity at room temperature and melt flow at high temperature. Silicone is a kind of special rubber, cross-linked with good mechanical strength, wear resistance and high temperature resistance, it belongs to thermosetting rubber, vulcanization after reheating will not melt, the temperature is too high when combustion, complete combustion products for water and silica。

　　2、They differ in their analytical structure: silica gel is an elastomer connected by a main chain of silicon-oxygen bonds, while the side chain is generally a methyl group, namely CH3. TPE is a thermoplastic elastomer, including styrene, olefin and polyurethane. The main difference between the two molecular structures is SI02 structure and CC structure.

　　3、From the processing performance: silicone need vulcanization heating molding, TPE does not need vulcanization can be processed. Silicone processing molding difficult, and TPE production processing simple.

　　4、Silica gel has advantages over TPE in high temperature resistance. The temperature resistance of silica gel is generally between 200 ° c and 300 ° c, while TPE theoretically is generally between 130 ° c and 150 ° c.

　　5、The price of silica gel is generally more than 30,000 pieces per ton, while the price of TPE is generally between 13,000-30,000. In terms of price, TPE has more advantages, except for special TPE materials, such as halogen-free, flame retardant, food grade and other characteristics.

　　6.From the cost point of view, silicone waste can not be recycled, TPE waste, nozzle material, scrap material and so on can be completely recycled and recycled, TPE can save more costs.

　　In terms of recyclability and cost, TPE meets the requirements of silica gel materials. As TPE is applied in more and more types and applications, TPE is the preferred material instead of silica gel.