Quick 861DW heating element insulation, what is it?

[shadewind]

I'm thinking of getting a Quick 861DW hot air station but have some concerns about the heating element. Due to some home-related asbestos experience, I have a bit of an irrational fear of breathable mineral fibers. Watching a Youtube video of someone removing the heating element of the 861DW, I saw that there is some sort of heat insulation visible at the base of the heating element. It looks like some sort of flexible sheet material surrounding the actual heating element insulating it from the metal tube or something similar.

Does anyone who owns one of these units know what material it is? It can't be asbestos, can it? Is it friable?

I do know that this is a weird question but I would appreciate if someone could help me.

[Gyro]

Somebody asked almost that exact question the other day...

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/858d-hot-air-station-and-asbestos-concern/

[shadewind]

Somebody asked almost that exact question the other day...

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/858d-hot-air-station-and-asbestos-concern/

That is somewhat helpful, although this is a different unit.

[amyk]

Almost certainly mica.

[Gyro]

...
I saw that there is some sort of heat insulation visible at the base of the heating element. It looks like some sort of flexible sheet material surrounding the actual heating element insulating it from the metal tube or something similar.

Does anyone who owns one of these units know what material it is? It can't be asbestos, can it? Is it friable?
...

The flexible sheet might also be some form of woven glass fibre with a high temperature binder (teflon?). I don't know the temperature spec but it's often sold for oven liners. It probably wouldn't withstand actual element wire contact but could probably used for outer sleeve insulation. Asbestos would be almost impossible to turn into a thin mechanically durable sheet.

[shadewind]

...
I saw that there is some sort of heat insulation visible at the base of the heating element. It looks like some sort of flexible sheet material surrounding the actual heating element insulating it from the metal tube or something similar.

Does anyone who owns one of these units know what material it is? It can't be asbestos, can it? Is it friable?
...

The flexible sheet might also be some form of woven glass fibre with a high temperature binder (teflon?). I don't know the temperature spec but it's often sold for oven liners. It probably wouldn't withstand actual element wire contact but could probably used for outer sleeve insulation. Asbestos would be almost impossible to turn into a thin mechanically durable sheet.

That's a fair point, as far as I understand, asbestos turns to dust unless you add a binder or weave it into cloth.

Anyway, the material in there hardly seems friable at all it is it? Looking at pictures, it looks more plasticky and thin rather than fibrous and felt like so mica paper in layers seems like a reasonable assumption.