Click here for ball pricing and availability Torlon balls also available in metric sizes now!

• Torlon is the strongest, stiffest melt processable plastic available.
• Torlon is stronger at 230°C than many plastics are at room temperature, and even then outgassing is so little that it cannot be detected.
• Torlon offers metal mimicking thermal expansion, which eliminates fit and clearance problems.
• Torlon has a low coefficient of friction and exceptional wear resistance.
• Torlon is often the right choice for applications where high loads, temperature extremes and wear resistance are required.

Drake Plastics is a dedicated manufacturer of Torlon products- Custom, Fast, Low minimums. We offer more geometries and a broader capability than anyone, serving applications in aircraft, aerospace, semiconductor, oilfield, medical, printing, and industrial fields.

Drake Plastics was founded in 1997 to produce what no one else could- or would. Atlantic Research Corp (ARC) had specified Glass Reinforced PAI- “Torlon 5030” for a flight critical part on the Javelin Missile, the Igniter Cup. While ARC had successfully obtained stock for testing and development, the initial producer was not able to make or deliver 5030. After considerable effort, the producer exited the market, and ARC was in a bind. Live fire tests were completed. Contracts for production were in hand. And no other producer was willing to extrude ‘this impossible stuff’. ARC was desperate- desperate enough to support a start-up with a clear vision and a personally invested proprietor.

Drake Plastics was born, borrowing a family name of humble beginnings that aspired to know no limits. Over ten years later, Drake still serves as the sole global source of Javelin Igniter Cups. Every product in our broad capability has a similar story. They have been developed one by one, starting with a customer whose product or process we could improve by delivering something that didn’t yet exist. And through each development we continually improve the state of our art.

Ferrari race team Risi Competizione using Torlon 4435 suspension bushings supplied by Drake Plastics

Drake is truly a Lean Manufacturer- we started Lean and have stayed there. Lean principles are utilized in every aspect of our business: customer-defined value, transparency, single-piece flow and continuous improvement. Waste and inefficiency are relentlessly driven out. Lean Thinking contributes dramatically to our organization’s ability to develop and produce unique, high quality engineering plastic products. We deliver them on time to the four corners of the world with exceptional service and support. Our Quality Goal is “Perfection in Product and Service”. We never say ‘we meet the specification’ and sit on our laurels. Meeting the specification is achieving the minimum acceptable standard- not much of an achievement in our judgment. Drake Plastics is named after the English seaman, Sir Francis Drake Our ship logo was adopted from the Drake crest, as was the "Auxilio Divino" screen on our letterhead. Translation: 'With Divine help'.

®Torlon is a registered trademark of Solvay Advanced Polymers