Plastic resins find a great application in the plastic manufacturing industries. Depending on properties, these resins are further categorized as thermoplastic resins, thermosetting resins, epoxy resins, and so on. Amongst all – types of resins, thermoplastic resins find great application across plastic manufacturing industries. This post gives insights about thermoplastic resins, their properties, and utilization in the plastic manufacturing.
Introduction to Thermoplastic Resins
As the name suggests, thermoplastic resins are polymers that soften on the heat application and harden on cooling. Their function is totally dependent on the application of temperature. They can be re-melted and re-molded multiple times. They have excellent moldability, which makes them optimum for plastic manufacturing. Therefore, thermoplastic resins have become one of the most significant elements of plastic manufacturing.
What Makes Thermoplastic Resins Suitable for Plastic Manufacturing
Thermoplastic resins possess significant properties that make them suitable for plastic manufacturing process. Let’s discuss these properties in detail.
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- High Moldability: These resins possess polymeric properties, which they gain due to polymer bonds between individual molecules. On application of heat, the molecular bond weakens and the resin liquefies. The liquefied resin can be easily transferred to a molding equipment or a mold. Liquid molecules easily take the shape of the mold and on cooling the polymer molecules harden. This proves that thermoplastic resins have high moldability, which is essential in the plastic molding process.
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- Remolding and Recycling: These resins can be remolded and recycled without any material loss. There is almost no wastage of material while using these resins for plastic molding. The scrap can be reheated and reused for further molding applications.
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- Strength: The products made out of these resins offer great strength. If compared with the metals, these resins offer great applications for low-stress products like bags and high-stress products like mechanical fixtures.
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- Chemical Resistance: In chemical process industries, corrosion accounts for one of the major portion of annual expenditure. To reduce it, many engineers use thermoplastic resins because they are chemical resistant. The chemical attack occurs in two ways – one when chemicals may alter physical properties of the polymer without altering its molecular structure, and other when it reacts with the polymer. Most thermoplastics are formulated to avoid any form of attack. Having said that, it is important to choose the suitable thermoplastics on the basis the application or process specifics.
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- High Dimensional Precision: Many plastic products demand high dimensional precision. Sometimes, despite perfect design and manufacturing, the material deforms. This is certainly not a case with the thermoplastic resins. These resins offer minimum post-manufacturing deformity due to its shrink-resistance. Therefore, these resins become very suitable materials for applications that demand dimensional precision.
Know about Popular Thermoplastics
The list of commonly used thermoplastics and their applications are listed below.
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- ABS: ABS stands for Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. This one of the most effective engineering-grade plastics. This thermoplastic offers high impact resistance, high tensile strength, and especially high formability. ABS is used in OEM part manufacturing and 3D printing operations.
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- Polycarbonate: Family of Polycarbonates (PCs) hosts many excellent thermoplastics. These PC thermoplastics are used for plastic manufacturing due to high temperature resistance, impact tolerance and excellent dimensional stability. PC thermoplastics are used for manufacturing helmets, bullet-proof glass, CDs, etc.
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- Nylon: Nylon is one of the most commonly used thermoplastic in plastic manufacturing. There are multiple grades of Nylon that offer good abrasion resistance, stiffness, heat resistance, and impact resistance. Different grades of nylon are used for manufacturing ropes, parachutes, nets, conveyor belts, etc. Nylon 6 and Nylon 6-6are two popular grades used in plastic and textile industries.
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- Polyethylene: Various grades of polyethylene like LDPE, HDPE, etc offer properties like tensile strength, moldability, machinability, chemical resistance etc. Therefore, according to the requirement, these materials are used for multiple applications. Food packaging, household products, industrial cartridges, etc are few products made of polyethylene.
Since the utility of thermoplastic resinsis persuaded, it is essential that you purchase the quality resins for your application. If you are a plastic manufacturer, you should purchase the resins from trusted suppliers to maintain high-quality production. Mid Continent Plastics is an American company that has been supplying premium quality resins since 1987. If you intend to purchase resins from a trusted supplier then this can be the company for you. Mid Continent Plastics has been serving the clients in injection molding, extrusion, and compounding industries by offering high quality thermoplastic resins, since the inception.
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