page_title: Robert W. Gore
section_title: Creating a product: Multi-Tet Cable
hierarchical_section_title: Robert W. Gore / Creating a product: Multi-Tet Cable
caption_attribution_description: seal tape
context_page_description: Robert W. "Bob" Gore is an American engineer and scientist, inventor and businessman. Gore has led his family's company, W. L. Gore & Associates, in developing applications of polytetrafluoroethylene ranging from computer cables to medical equipment to the outer layer of space suits. His most significant breakthrough is likely the invention of Gore-Tex, a waterproof/breathable fabric popularly known for its use in sporting and outdoor gear.
context_section_description: While his father Bill Gore was working for DuPont, he was also experimenting at home with DuPont materials such as Teflon Polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon PTFE). He wanted to insulate electrical wires using PTFE, but attempts to coat wire with powdered PTFE did not produce a consistent coating.  In April 1957, while Bob was still a sophomore at Delaware, Bill showed him around his home lab and explained the problem he was having.
  Bob suggested surrounding the wire with a different form of PTFE, a white tape that was already of uniform thickness. His father expected that the PTFE tape would not stick to the wire, but he tried the idea, and it worked. Wires were laid between layers of PTFE tape and sent through a grooved calendar roll, then heated to melt the tape into a coherent coating. The result was a PTFE-insulated ribbon cable containing multiple copper conductors, later called "Multi-Tet Cable".
caption: White PTFE seal tape
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