Reduce Material Waste. Lower Machining Costs. Maintain Performance.
Many high-performance polymer components such as seal rings, wear rings, bearings, bushings, valve seats, and compressor rings are traditionally machined from solid rod stock. While effective, this approach often results in removing 40–70% of the purchased material, significantly increasing material costs, machining time, tooling wear, and energy consumption.
The problem becomes even more expensive when machining premium materials such as:
- PEEK Bearing Grade (10/10/10)
- PEEK PTFE20
- PPS Bearing Grade (10/10/10)
- Delrin® 100AF
- Delrin® AF DE588
For these applications, the material removed during machining can represent a substantial portion of the finished part cost.
Why Tubular Bars Matter
Tubular bars provide a near-net-shape starting geometry for ring-shaped components. By starting with a tube rather than a solid rod, manufacturers dramatically reduce material waste and machining requirements.
Benefits
- Lower material consumption
- Reduced machining time
- Lower tooling costs
- Reduced energy usage
- Improved manufacturing efficiency
- Lower total part cost
Example
Consider a seal ring with:
- 8" OD
- 6" ID
- 1" Width
Machining from an 8" solid rod can waste more than 50% of the purchased material. Starting with a tubular bar having a near-net-shape ID can reduce waste to less than 10%.
For premium materials such as PEEK Bearing Grade or Delrin® AF DE588, the savings can be significant.
The Challenge
Historically, large-diameter polymer tubular bars have been difficult to manufacture consistently.
Maintaining uniform wall thickness, dimensional accuracy, low residual stress, and consistent material properties across the wall section requires precise control of polymer flow throughout the extrusion process.
As a result, many engineers continued to specify solid rod stock despite the inherent waste.
Introducing Metaflow™
Metaflow™ is Quantum AEP's proprietary tubular bar extrusion technology developed specifically for high-performance polymers.
Using advanced flow modeling, simulation, and AI-assisted process optimization, Quantum engineers developed a process that produces tubular bars with highly uniform material distribution and consistent performance throughout the cross-section.
The result is a tubular stock shape engineered to provide performance equivalent to components machined from premium extruded rod stock while significantly reducing material waste.
Metaflow™ Advantages
- Uniform wall thickness
- Consistent mechanical properties
- Excellent dimensional stability
- Superior machinability
- Reduced residual stress
- Repeatable batch-to-batch quality
Available Materials
Metaflow™ tubular bars are available in:
PEEK
- Unfilled PEEK
- PEEK Bearing Grade (10/10/10)
- PEEK PTFE20
- PEEK GF30
- PEEK CF30
PPS
- Impact-Modified PPS
- PPS Bearing Grade (10/10/10)
- PPS GF30
- PPS CF30
Delrin®
- Delrin® 100AF
- Delrin® AF DE588
Available Sizes
Outside Diameter
4" to 12"
Wall Thickness
1" to 2"
Custom sizes may be available upon request.
The Quantum Advantage
Metaflow™ combines proprietary die design, advanced simulation, AI-driven process optimization, and precision annealing to produce premium tubular stock shapes with exceptional consistency and performance.
For manufacturers producing seal rings, bearings, bushings, wear rings, and similar components, Metaflow™ provides a simple advantage:
Buy less material. Machine less material. Waste less material.
Without compromising performance.
Conclusion
Engineers spend considerable effort selecting the right material. Selecting the right stock shape can be equally important.
For ring-shaped components manufactured from high-performance polymers, tubular bars can dramatically reduce material waste and machining costs while maintaining the mechanical performance and reliability required for critical applications.
Quantum AEP's Metaflow™ Tubular Bar Technology delivers the performance of premium extruded stock shapes in a geometry engineered for efficiency.
Because the most expensive material is often the material you machine away.
.avif)
.avif)
