Slip Plate vs Slide n Glide
Easier by Design
Recently, a customer asked us why our Slide n Glide graphite wasn't as thick as Slip Plate. Here is an explanation from one of the chemical engineers who developed it for us.
The graphite content in these two products is very similar, and we actually have a little more. Slide N Glide is 54.5 wt% total solids, and (as of the last time we obtained a sample) Slip Plate was 51.6 wt%. Even the ratio of graphite to resin was similar in both products (2.4:1 in ours and ~2.3:1 in Slip Plate 1).
The biggest difference between the two products is “feel”, consistency (viscosity), and stability.
Slide N Glide is much more resistant to settling than Slip Plate, and is much easier to remix. I remember the Slip Plate 1 product having packed, gummy graphite in the bottom of the container, and needing a lot of elbow grease to mix up. When we formulate new products, we choose our additives and chemistry very carefully to create the most stable graphite suspensions possible – we look at that feature as one aspect of product quality.
Your customer is right - Slip Plate 1 is thicker than Slide N Glide - about 117 Krebs Units versus 100 KU in our product. Graphite content does contribute to the viscosity (thickness) of these products, but the final thickness is controlled via thickener additives – each company has chosen when they feel to be the proper viscosity for this type of product.
In our case, we think that the ease of remixing and application are a very important feature, and that is why we made the design decisions we did.
