Engineering plastics are a group of plastic materials that are far stronger and resilient compared to standard plastics such as polystyrene, PVC and Polyethylene and so on. With better chemical resistance, impact resistance, and mechanical strength, they perform better over a wide temperature range, under mechanical stress, and in difficult chemical and physical environments. Owing to their peculiar properties, they are in huge demand and are vastly procured for applications in the automotive, manufacturing, engineering, electronic, food and transport industries, among others. Is that all? No there is more to it. This post discusses engineering plastics including their benefits and typical applications.
Gain an Overview of Popularly Used Types of Engineering Plastics
Before discussing the benefits and typical applications, it is imperative to know about the popular types of engineering plastics that are widely being in use today. The following are a few amongst the many of the engineering plastics available in the market.
- ABS + Alloys
- Polycarbonate (PC)
- Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)
- Polyamide (Nylon)
- Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT)
- Polyetherimide (PEI)
- Polysulfone (PSU)
- Polyphenylene Sulfide (PPS)
- Polycarbonate (PC)
What are the Beneficial Properties of Engineering Plastics
Engineering plastics have been largely replacing several commodity plastics in applications. What account for such wide popularity of engineering plastics? The list below tells you why?
- Engineering plastics, due to their peculiar molecular structure, can be easily shaped to any complex shapes.
- Compared to the counterparts, engineering plastics are light in weight.
- They are known for their ability to absorb shock and vibration compared to standard plastic materials.
- They can withstand physical impact, making them ideal for heavy duty applications.
- Engineering plastics are flame retardant.
- These materials are unaffected when they come in contact with corrosive fluids and oils.
- They possess good heat resistance and dimensional accuracy.
- Engineering plastics can be easily formulated with fillers and additives to alter their physical, chemical, and thermal properties as per the application requirements.
- They are considered environment-friendly as many of these plastics allow recycling and reprocessing.
Application Examples of Engineering Plastics
As mentioned earlier, engineering plastics are largely sought after for fabricating products with complex shapes and structure. Since they can provide well-balanced properties in terms of strength, stiffness and chemical resistance, engineering plastics are largely procured by plastic product manufacturers across the world. They can be processed by extrusion and injection molding technique easily to produce:
- Blue ray discs
- Car bumpers
- Medical instruments
- Bearings, Bolts & nuts
- Bottle line wear plate
- Buffer pads and Bushes
- Chain guide and Exhaust ducts
- Gaskets and Gears
- Guide wheels
- Heat-seal surfaces
- Hoppers and Machine guards
- Piston seals & cups
- Pump components
- Safety glass & guards
- Security windows
- Sleeves
- Snap fit assemblies
- Thermal insulators
- Thrust washers
- Valve bodies and Valve components
- Washers
- Wear guides & strips and Wear pads
Where to Source High Quality Engineering Plastics
When it comes to sourcing plastics of any category to support your production process, it is vital to get the items from qualified suppliers. Since there are several plastic material distributors who claim the supply of the finest quality materials on time, it is not always the case. There are fraudulent companies that supply low quality engineering plastics, which in turn brings trouble when you use them in the actual production process.
Hence, in order to make your engineering plastic supplier selection easy, this post ends by letting you know about a trusted distributor of various types of plastics, the Mid Continent Plastics. Being a customer-centric organization, Mid Continent Plastics prioritizes customers and provide them with the right type of engineering plastics on time and assures the best prices. Contact the team the company, and see what best they can offer you amongst engineering plastic category to meet your production demands.
