By: Prashant Patil
Last updated : July 20, 2025 6:24 pm
Over the past 50 years, the major challenges in fluoropolymer-lined process equipment has been the limited understanding of proper raw material selection and ensuring consistency in quality
India has a large chemical industry in Asia pacific region with a steady growth rate of 7-9 per cent in chemicals, pharmaceuticals and specialty chemicals. With an overall market size of > US$ 300 Billion, India is the 6th largest chemical manufacturer in the world.
Larger domestic demand along with growing exports from India brings a lot of new capital investment to India which is expected to hit the US $ 500 billion mark in the next 4-5 years. Building new chemical plants requires a large amount of investment in fixed capital and process equipment. The growth comes along with multiple challenges including key raw material availability, new technologies, digitization, safety concerns and equipment compatibility to handle corrosion and hazardous chemicals at optimized cost.
There are multiple solutions to corrosion mitigation practiced in the chemical industry & every solution has its own Pros and Cons. Fluoropolymers like PTFE, PFA, and PVDF etc. as barrier lining material (3mm to 12 mm thick) have been used in chemical process equipment manufacturing for corrosion management for more than 10 years. Key applications include Fluoropolymers, Lined Pipes, Fittings, Valves, Pumps, Columns and Tanks etc. whereas premature failure leads to increased downtime and production losses.
There are a handful of quality fluoropolymers lined equipment manufacturers in India and others are catching up. In the last 50 years, among the key challenges observed in fluoropolymers lined process equipment is limited knowledge on right selection of quality raw materials and consistency. Also, the wrong fluoropolymers grades selection without understanding of exposed chemicals & process conditions like Pressure, Vacuum, temperature, permeation performance etc. The limited knowledge on manufacturing technologies and many unorganized players besides the lack of adequate and accurate tooling and skilled manpower are also few elusive challenges. Lack of testing facilities as per international quality standards and manufacturing limitation on larger size fluoropolymers lined equipment and dependency of imported lined equipment at very heavy cost. For example, large Diameter PTFE lined Columns > 400 NB (16 inch) under full vacuum condition and other equipment like tank, vessels, basket filters with no maintenance and zero operational cost.
Tech Disruption: Redefining What’s Possible
In the recent past there have been multiple efforts taken by key value chain players in the chemical industry to upgrade overall quality performance and reliability of fluoropolymers lined equipment. Some key corrective actions taken include end user education and awareness from equipment manufacturers via focused seminars, conferences and exhibitions for global information sharing. Active involvement from fluoropolymers material manufacturers and engineering process consultants has significant contribution in successful implementation of lined equipment.
All above efforts have brought new positive drive and helped equipment manufacturers to understand tough challenges mentioned above and brought new solutions. These include newer manufacturing technologies, lager sized seamless PTFE liner manufacturing > 400 NB to 2000 NB (16 inch to 80 inch) for heavy process equipment like columns, Vessels, scrubbers columns, tanks, basket filters, etc. which is proud moment for India to become import independent and develop substitutes with high quality Fluoropolymers lined equipment at reasonable cost and minimum delivery time to serve industry replacing exotic metals.
Resistotech Industries has a state of the art manufacturing facility near Nashik (200 km from Mumbai) for fluoropolymers like PTFE, PFA, PVDF processing and lining facility spread across 9000 m2 area dedicated to offer corrosion protection solutions. Accepting one of the toughest challenges in the chemical industry, after continuous trials and developments efforts, the company successfully developed India’s largest diameter seamless extruded PTFE Liner up to 1800 NB (72 inch which was successfully lined inside a carbon steel column for handling corrosive chemicals under vacuum conditions. The whole project got over in just 24 months. This successful case has built significant confidence for Resistotech and helped them to showcase our products at many chemical manufacturers in India and abroad. The company started receiving firmed orders from many reputed local and international process equipment manufacturers, end users and engineering consultants for larger diameter seamless PTFE lined columns, vessels and equipment. Also, elaborated that there are around 30+ process parameters needs to be controlled for larger diameter PTFE Liners and 10 of them are most critical to get desired level of quality performance as per international quality standards like ASTM D 4895 & testing as per ASTM F1545-15 for few PTFE Lined products.
A Promising Path Ahead
Resistotech is gaining a lot of appreciation from end customers and engineering consultants for addressing their specific application based needs and becoming one of the preferred partners for development and supply of complicated & quality Fluoropolymers Lined products in India. Through differentiated and unique offerings, the company has achieved excellent growth in the last 5 years which is remarkable. Resistotech is currently focusing on complex challenges faced by aggressive chemical handling in industries like Paper & Pulp, Specialty Chemical and Fluorochemicals, Refineries, Pharma API, Chlor Alkali, Steel processing, Pickling, Agrochemical & pesticides manufacturers to find alternative solutions to expensive import substitutes & exotic metals like Titanium, Tantalum and Hastelloy for selective process equipment within range of fluoropolymers.
We now plan to grow aggressively in the coming 5 years with significant investment in new facilities for production, development and quality control for lined equipment near Nashik. The company is also planning to expand in the international market by partnering with global players to spread their technological advancement for the larger benefit of the chemical industry in corrosion management solutions.