Gehr Plastics Announces Huge 24″ Diameter Acetal Rod
Gehr Plastics is an industry leader in large high performance plastic materials. They announced at this years IAPD Conference in San Diego, the new production of 24″ diameter (600mm) Natural Copolymer Acetal Rod.
Being an industry leader is more than making the largest material, it is also about making the best quality material. Gehr Plastics is ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 approved and certified, guaranteeing a consistently high quality product. The product line that Gehr Plastics produces is also quite large. The materials include: ABS, Acetal (POM-C and POM-H), HDPE, Kynar, Noryl, Nylon, PEEK, PEI, Polypropylene, Polysulfone, PPO, PVC (Type 1, Type 2 and CPVC), PVDF and Ultem materials. All of these materials are available in a wide range of sizes, and yes, some of the largest.
Gehr Plastics Long History
Gehr Plastics has been leading the industry in innovation since 1932, and is now in the third generation of family owned and operation. From the wide range of materials to the extremes in size range, this is cutting edge performance from a family run company. They also released a web-app for picking plastic materials, Gehr Plastic Selection Tool, and it is also available for mobile devices. This comparison tool compares not only plastics, but metals as well, for a great look at the best physical properties for an application.
While quality and size are keystones to excellence, Gehr Plastics is also interested in materials that the rest of the industry has not
Large Cast Nylon Type 6 Rod
considered. Over the last several years, Gehr has produced some PLA materials (made from plants) and even a Clear Nylon Rod for higher temperature sight-glass applications. These are just a few of the cutting edge areas that Gehr Plastics is leading in this industry.
Industrial Plastics is Master Distributor
Gehr Plastics materials are sold through a tight network of Master Distributors throughout the United States. Industrial Plastic Supply, Inc. of Anaheim, CA is proud to be one of the top selected suppliers of these innovative materials. Contact us for any of these high quality and wide size range materials, call us @ 866-832-9315 or send us a note here.
Use the best available tools to narrow down the best plastic sheet material for your application.
What are the best methods to pick the proper plastic sheet material? Use the tools that the professionals use to find the best plastic material for your application.
Where To Begin
The process of picking the proper plastic material starts with determining the ‘must have’ physical properties needed for your application. Designing a part with the minimum performance factors in mind will help to eliminate an overly expensive part.
Critical factors to consider are:
Temperature requirements (short term and long term)
Chemical or Environmental Requirements
UV resistance (Will it be in direct sunlight)
Color or Transparency
Strengths (Impact and Compression)
Compliance Issues (Certification for FDA, NSF, Dairy, etc.)
Review The Plastic Property Comparison Guide
The first tool suggested is a chart produced by the IAPD (International Association of Plastic Distribution – https://iapd.org/) linked in picture below, and listed on this chart are the most common plastic sheet and plastic rod materials that are commonlyavailable. In addition, the chart compares the physical properties of these common plastic materials. Click on picture to access chart. Included in this chart is a relative cost comparison, which will assist in limiting the materials to proper plastics for a application without over-designing and using an expensive ‘over kill’ material. Some common plastic sheet materials can be very expensive. Materials like PEEK (PolyEtherEtherKetone) can be in the $100 per pound range or more.
Start Search With Temperature Resistance
After looking over the IAPD (International Association of Plastic Distribution) Physical Properties Chart above, now it is time to evaluate specifics for your application. The critical factors listed above are ranked by most important to least important. If your part needs to handle a continuoustemperature of 300 degrees F, this is a critical physical property. Picking a material that softens at 250 degrees is a recipe for disaster. Pick a material that can handle the temperature first.
Will Part Have Chemical Exposure
Next, look at environmental requirements. Parts exposed to chemicals are important to research. Find the chemical make up and the concentration of the chemical to insure the material you pick can handle this solution. Many plasticshave excellent chemical resistance as evidenced by evaluating the container the chemicals are stored in already. Acommon plastic that is chemical resistant is Polypropylene, the same material used for automotive batteries. While Polypropylene and HDPE sheets are excellent in chemical resistance, their temperature range is quite limited. Also,these two plastics can not be easily bonded or glued, and would require heat welding for assembly.
Does Your Part Live In The Sun
Most plastics do not handle long exposure to direct sunlight without an additional UV additive. The one exception is Acrylic, which is the most UV resistant plastic sheet available. Some plastics handle UV well if they have a carbonblack additive, or a extra UV package added at time of production.
How Critical Is The Color
The most common colors in many plastic sheets are Natural (white to tan) and Black. While other colors are available with a special run, this may require a large minimum order. Some plastics, like HDPE are available in many colors andtextures for use in marine, playground and food processing applications. In many plastic applications, a machined partis being made, and the color is the least important factor. If it is an internal part of a machine, no one really cares about the color of the part. Some clients look for materials in a specific color to help ‘brand’ their parts for easy replacementand identification.
Nylon with huge amount of stress, cooled too quickly.
How Much Stress Will The Part See
Strength is a wide range of physical properties covering many stresses a part may be exposed to. From impact to compression, expansion to tensile strength, all of these can be critical in designing a plastic part. There are otherfactors in the ‘Strength’ realm, like Notched Izod and water absorption. If your part will be exposed to crushing pressure, pulling apart force or impact, these are critical things to consider prior to picking your plastic part.
PTFE is asoft and slippery plastic, but will ‘cold flow’ under high pressure, and High Pressure Laminates like G-10 FR 4 sheetcan withstand some of the highest pressures. The Notched Izod tests for materials that break easily if a scored mark has been made in the surface. Acrylics break very easily if scored, but UHMW will not break at all under the same test.
What Agency Approval May Be Required
In many applications a part may require approval or testing to meet a third party certification. One such common application is for materials in food processing applications. Common requests included UL ratings, Fire Ratings, Military specifications and many more. Food contact is a popular request, covering material that is either FDA (Foodand Drug Administration) or NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) approved. These agencies insure that materials are rigorously tested and comply with their requirements for safety. Some common materials used in food processing that meet the FDA certification are Acetal Copolymer – Acetal Homopolymer, HDPE, UHMW and Nylon, plus many others. Once these steps have been completed, several materials should present themselves as meeting your criteria andphysical property requirement. Unfortunately there is no one perfect plastic that works in all applications. However, for almost every application, there is a material that will work, and work better than most other substrates.
If you are still in need of assistance in identifying an appropriate plastic material, contact an experienced Plasticologist at Industrial Plastic Supply, Inc. – call 866-832-9315
People in the plastics industry have known for over 50 years that Polycarbonate Sheets are tough. This clear plastic sheet material is commonly used to replace window glazing. The best known property for this polycarbonate sheet material is that it is break resistant, or in many cases, considered unbreakable. This is a great benefit for areas where window glass is broken easily.
Recently some cities have passed ordinances to change out the plywood window coverings on abandoned homes, and they are installing clear polycarbonate sheets instead. This is a very attractive replacement, and is a big step in fighting the blight of abandoned homes.
Polycarbonate is produced under several trade names, including Plaskolite Tuffak® GP, Covestro Makrolon®, SABIC Lexan®, Cyrolon®, Zelux® and many more. These materials are available in sheets, plate, slab, bar and rod.
Read more on this material below.
Excerpt from AZCentral, The Arizona Republic:
Property owners and banks in Phoenix had begun outfitting windows with sheets of polycarbonate, a thin, nearly indestructible plastic that mirrors the appearance of glass.
And last month, the city became among the first in the U.S. to make polycarbonate windows a matter of municipal law.
Phoenix now requires all window and door openings visible from the street to be secured with the material if the structure has been unoccupied for more than 90 days. The 90-day provision is also new, replacing the previous deadline of 180 days. The measures were the result of an abandoned buildings task force that Gallego spearheaded.
No one likes living next to abandoned buildings with boarded up doors or windows. So the city of Durham started replacing the plywood eyesores with a clear, durable plastic.
The city is working to reduce the number of abandoned houses by helping owners fix them up. But for houses that still need boarding up, the city has found that plastic not only improves the overall appearance of a neighborhood, it may reduce crime by discouraging squatters and making it easier for police to see inside vacant buildings.
“I can’t stress enough how the elimination of the boards has a tremendous positive impact on neighborhoods and communities,” said Faith Gardner, housing code administrator of the city’s department of neighborhood improvement services.
Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/durham-county/article20778429.html#storylink=cpy
These communities have fought back against vandalism and crime, as well as enhanced the value of local homes by changing from Plywood to Clear Polycarbonate Sheets. Tuffak GP is a super tough glazing grade clear Polycarbonate Sheet material is the same kind of material that Police Officers use for face shields and banks are using for bullet resistant glazing.
The premier manufacturer of Polycarbonate Sheet in the USA is Tuffak® PG made by Plaskolite and made from Covestro® (formerly Bayer MaterialScience) resins, and they produce Tuffak® GP Polycarbonate Sheet. Polycarbonate is also available in rod and thick plate for machined parts.
Consider using Polycarbonate sheet for your next glazing material.
Plastics have been around for over a century now, and are used in almost every industry and application. The problem is that society has made the plastics industry the poster child for waste, trash and pollution. This is unfair, and factually incorrect.
Plastic materials are lighter, cost less to produce, use less electrical power to produce, and are safer for use. It is not new phenomenon that a material or product, once used, gets thrown away. This is the normal life cycle of many materials. Some inexpensive plastic materials used in consumer goods are made to throw away once the item has been purchased. Things like the indestructible packing we fight on kids toys, the cheap plastic sporks from restaurants, the prolific plastic water bottles and of course, the plastic grocery bags. All of these materials are 100% recyclable, the hitch is that it requires a little effort to recycle.
Are Plastic Materials The Cause?
On the positive side, the products that plastic currently replaces are much larger, heavier and generally cost more to produce, and use more energy to produce. This means, that the large amount of plastics that are not being properly disposed of, are replacing much larger quantities of materials that would not be recycled. I still remember times when I was a kid, and seeing tin cans in the lakes and rivers when out fishing. People polluting with their trash is not a new thing, now it is just a different group of materials.
Thermoplastic plastic materials are recyclable, and can be used over and over again. Generally, the recycled product would not be for a Food or Medical application. A common use of recycled plastic is with the collected milk jugs and detergent bottles, both HDPE, can be ground and turned into plastic lumber. The plastic lumber can be used to replace standard wood products for decks and outdoor furniture, and it will last for 15 – 20 years with no maintenance or painting. The cost savings and reduced use of natural resources for this one product can be staggering. The color doesn’t fade, it wood won’t split or crack, and it continues to look good for up to two decades.
Our recent article, “Plastic Material Bad Reputation – How did we get here?“, we discuss the factors that have lead to the ‘throw away’ society that we have become. Much of this bad reputation is for products that are designed as one use and then designed to be thrown away. So, if we are to change the bad reputation, companies need to change this design flaw, and start using materials for applications that can be reused easily.
If we can minimize the use of throw away plastics, and recycle the plastic material once we are done with it, we can help to limit plastic in land fills.
The blame for plastic pollution should be placed…on people. The plastic is not the cause of the problem, it is the litter-bug and irresponsible individuals that trash our planet. How do the plastic bottles and grocery bags end up in the ocean. They certainly don’t throw themselves in to the ocean, it is lack of responsibility and negligent behavior.
It really only takes a couple of seconds to throw something into a recycle bin. Even better would be to reuse the plastic bottles or plastic bags. Plastic materials are not the problem, empathetic people are the problem.
UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene) and PTFE Sheet(PolyTetraFlouroEthylene) are very similar materials, and yet very different at the same time. They both possess certain characteristics that make them similar to each other. For instance, they both have a very low co-efficient of friction, which means they are great for sliding applications and are easy to machine.
Both of these materials are very resistant to chemicals such as chlorine and some acids and have great wear resistance. They have low to no water absorption. They also are FDA approved for handling food. PTFE and UHMW Polyethylene are both nearly impossible to bond (without treatment) and are susceptible to sagging under tensile load which is called ‘creep’. These both have very low coefficient of friction and work well for wear strips, slide pads and truck liners to make it easy to empty. These two materials are different in many ways also, and choosing between the two materials for a specific job is critical.
Below are a few examples of how these two materials are different.
1. UHMW is a polyolefin and PTFE is a fluoropolymer. Polyolefins are double bonded carbon while Fluoropolymers are carbon and fluorine bonded. UHMW is a monomer which is consisted of one atom that will bond with another to form a polymer. PTFE is a polymer which is made up of a repeating chain of monomers.
2. PTFE has a higher temperature range than UHMW. The PTFE has a continuous use temperature of 500 degrees F. UHMW is much lower with a continuous use temperature of 200 degrees F and a melting point of 271 degrees F. The UHMW starts to become become soft at higher temperatures while the PTFE is much more resistant and with a melting point of 621 degrees F.
3. UHMW has higher abrasion resistance than PTFE. Both have great impact and wear resistance but because of UHMW having a molecular weight between 2-6 million making it the best wear resistance material in the plastic family, it makes it ideal to take wear and impact over a wider range and longer period of time without losing its properties.
4. UHMW has a much lower density than PTFE. This makes UHMW able to float in water while Fluoropolymers are significantly heavier (almost twice the density of UHMW) and would sink.
5. PTFE has excellent electrical and thermal properties. The virgin grade of PTFE is a better insulator and exhibits better electrical properties which can be used in radio frequencies, cables and circuit boards while UHMW cannot.
6. UHMW is much less expensive than the Fluoropolymers. Especially recently, PTFE has become harder to come by, and during the last 18 months there has been a global shortage of a key raw material called fluorspar that is used to make all Fluoropolymer materials. The ability to take lots of wear and tear and requiring low long term maintenance makes UHMW more cost effective.
7. The standard color of PTFE is Natural, which is a dense white. The UHMW comes in Natural (a deep milky white) or Black. The UHMW can be produced in many colors, and minimums are rather low. To obtain PTFE in colors is much more difficult, and would also have large minimum orders.
Click here for data sheet comparisons for each material…
Both the UHMW and the PTFE are available as sheet, sheets, sheeting, slab, bar, strip, panels, film, round rod, rods and block. Contact us for assistance with these or other shapes.
PTFE Sheeting Properties
Specific Gravity D792 2.14 – 2.24
Tensile Strength Yield D638 2,500 – 6,000
Tensile Modulus D638 80,000
Izod Impact – Notched D256 3.0
Hardness – Rockwell D785 D50 – D65
Deflection Temp @ 264psi D648 150
Deflection Temp @ 66 psi D648 250
Co. Thermal Expansion D696 5.5X10-5
UHMW Sheeting Properties
Specific Gravity D792 .93 – .94
Tensile Strength Yield D638 6,800
Coefficient of Friction – Static D1894 .25
Izod Impact – Notched D256 No Break
Hardness – Rockwell D785 R64
Vicat Softening Temp D1525 260
Deflection Temp @ 66 psi D648 174
Co. Thermal Expansion D696 11.0X10-5
These are just some examples of plastic materials being similar, and yet having very different properties. The PTFE Sheet and UHMW Sheet may appear very similar in color and can be used for some of the same applications, but when needed for a specific use or property needed, one might be dramatically better than the other. As the old saying goes, “You should never judge a book by its cover” and the same is true with plastic. Review the properties and test prior to choosing a final material for your application.
Call us for further assistance at 866-832-9315, or click here to contact us with your questions.
A common standard item in the metals industry is ‘strip’. Strip is normally a piece of material that is 1/16″ – 3/8″ thick and 1.0″ – 4.0″ wide, although thicker and wider materials can also be referred to as strip. The metals industry produces various metals in these sizes of strip. In the plastics industry, strip is something we cut from larger sheets. The sizes are the same as listed above, but are cut from 48″ X 96″ or 48″ X 120″ sheets.
The a few of the most common plastics materials we cut to plastic strips are:
Most plastics can be cut to these strip sizes, with various lengths available depending on type of material. In some materials and in some sizes, depending on quantity, special run to size plastic strip is available. These special run plastic strips can be run to almost any length. Specifically, in the UHMW and PTFE materials, much longer lengths are available in rolls of material. The UHMW can be purchased in standard and adhesive back varieties. This UHMW with adhesive is a commonly used item in the wear strip applications because of its ease of installation. A large market for this kind of strip is in the food processing industry for all wear points and to reduce noise in the plant. Some of these same sizes with adhesive on the back are available in the PTFE, and are available in long tape style rolls. In some cases, colors other than natural are available, contact us for details.
Plastic Strip and Strips are available in special sizes
With the massive range of plastics available, and most of these materials available to be cut to strips, the nearly unlimited amount of choices in plastic strip availability make this post difficult to be all inclusive. Great material for the industrial, food processing, material handling, automotive and recreational industries.
Most plastics are available in large sheets, and we can cut these sheets to strip for you. Also, depending on the material, size and quantity, we can custom extrude your strip in longer lengths and to your requirements. Decide on a type of plastic, determine the size and quantity, and give us a call. Use your imagination, we can help.
If you have a project where strips would be ideal, please contact us to see if the type of material you need is available in the strip configuration that would be beneficial. Call us at: 866-832-9315 or drop us an email and we will be happy to go to work on your requirement.
Topic: Plastic Strip and Plastic Strips – Strip Plastics
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