cam chain tensioner shoe - can it be improved?

[Goran]

Hello,

I know they rarely go wrong, and can last over 300k miles, but I cant help wondering if they could be made from better material?
It would be nice to replace them with better ones when doing the cam cover gaskets at some point in the future.

Would aluminium be a bad choice because it would cause wear on the cam chain? (aluminium being tougher than the nylon plastic used on oem shoe).
Also I guess the chain running over an aluminium shoe would generate a lot of aluminium dust which would end up in the oil.

Is there a better plastic that bends rather than breaks, and that would not become brittle from heat inside the engine? I read about glass reinforced nylon would that be good?

Just out of curiosity I bought one of these from ebay, I'm going to do some destructive testing on it to see if its any good.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vw-Audi-ec...37252755803325