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Nylon 6, Nylon 6/6 and Nylon 6/12 – What is the best Nylon rod or sheet to use

Nylon 6, Nylon 6/6 and Nylon 6/12 – What is the best Nylon rod or sheet to use

Nylon® Rod and Sheet (Polyamide) Grades available

The Nylon® Family of plastics are all very tough, strong, machine well, and have excellent wear properties. Nylon is a very popular plastic material, and is found in numerous applications. One of the largest usages is the production of household carpeting because of the excellent wear resistance. Nylon frequently replaces materials such as UHMW, PET, Acetal Copolymer – Acetal Homopolymer, and ABS. It will outwear most plastics and is self lubricating.

The wide variety of types and colors is one of the largest in the plastic industry.Common uses for Nylon Plastic materials

Nylon® Type 6/6 Rod, Sheet and Plate

The extruded Nylon 6/6 (Nylon Rod, Nylon Sheets and NylonTubes) material (aka: Polyhexamethylene Adiptimide) is available as Natural (tan – straw), Black, Glass filled (medium tan) and a molybdenum disulphide filled which is very dark gray. The most common size range for the extruded Nylon 6/6 is .125″ – 4.0″ diameter rod, and .125″ – 4.0″ thick sheet. The thicker materials should be cast due to cost and stress issues. For addition details on the Nylon Rod and Sheet 6/6 – see the data sheet.

Nylon Type 6 Cast Polycaprolactam

The cast Nylon type 6 has almost limitless possibilities. Many colors are available in Cast Nylon, the natural color, black, blue, dark gray (normally molybdenum disulphide filled again), green and many more. Sometimes the color is determined by the additive (oil filled) or by industry. Because of its relative ease of manufacture, many companies prefer to get their Nylon in a special color to help ‘brand’ their parts.

Cast Type 6 Polyamide can be made in Nylon rod from about 1.25″ diameter to almost any size. Nylon sheet normally starts at about .75″ thickness, and

Large Cast Nylon Type 6 Rod

Cast Nylon Type 6 Rod – 26″ OD X 8.0″ Thick

once again, can be made to almost any thickness. In addition to standard rod and plate, other sizes and shapes can be cast from Nylon Type 6 – ie. discs, tubes, near net shapes, large profiles, etc. The only limitations are how much money you have, and the size of the truck to get it to you! We have had cast very large blocks (11″ X 11″ X 48″ solid), sheaves up to 66″ OD, large tubes 36″OD X 12″ ID X 14″ long, and many more massive Nylon Cast parts.

Nylon 6/12 -Low Moisture Absorption

The claim to fame for the Nylon Type 6/12 is the low moisture absorption of the material. This grade of Nylon Sheet and Nylon rod is more stable that the type 6 or 6/6, and with the lower water absorption, this resin can handle a wider range of environments. Our manufacturer partners can run this as an Extruded Nylon Rod or Nylon sheet item or as a Cast Nylon Rod item. This opens the door to a wide range of sizes and shapes. This material exhibits most of the same properties of the Nylon 6/6 and Cast Type 6, with some slight improvements in key properties.

Filled Grades of Nylon

Because of the processing of Cast Nylon, many additives can be mixed into the material. The most common are: glass filled, oil filled, Kevlar fiber filled (Hydlar Z) and the molybdenum disulphide (M0S2). In addition, other fills and colorants (pigments) can be added to assist in manufacture or processing.

Common specifications for Nylon are: L-P-410, ASTM D-4066, L-P-395C, Mil-M-20693B Comp A, Ty I, IA, II and III, Mil-M-20693B Comp B, Ty 4, Mil-P-17091B Type 1, and Mil-P-46060, PA0613, ASTM D-5989 S-PA0511, and more.

Before buying your next big chunk of Nylon, contact us for information on the benefits of a filled  or near net-shape Cast Nylon part.

Contact us with your specifications, we look forward to assisting you.

Email us with questions or comments, or call us at 866-832-9315

Topic: Nylon Rod and Sheet

Innovative Plastic Materials from an Innovative Manufacturer

Innovative Plastic Materials from an Innovative Manufacturer

Innovative Plastics Manufacturer

Produces Innovative Sheet and Rod Materials

Gehr Plastics has been a major global manufacturer in the plastic sheet and rod industry since 1932. During this period, Gehr has become a leader in a variety of product lines, and also become known for very large sizes in both sheet and rod. Currently Gehr can produce Acetal rod up to 20″ in diameter and sheets up to 8″ thick.   Some of the many plastic materials the Gehr produces:ECO GEHR plastic rod

Winner of the 2008 Bioplastics Award

Radel R5500 Performance Plastics

Radel Rod is produced in many medical grade colors

Being innovative also means looking forward. Gehr was selected as the Bioplastics manufacturer of the year in 2008, partly for the new line of plastic materials which have a bio base. These materials have a variety of bio based forms, including: a PLA base, Cellulose based, Polyamide and Wood – Plastic Composite (WPC). One such material is ECOGEHR PLA-L which is a blend of polylactic (polylactic acid), some lignine, fatty acid and wax. This biopolymer is new to our industry and can be used in temperatures ranging from -22 °F to +140 °F. This complete line of materials is one of the only available in the plastic industry to be comprised of many renewable raw materials. Gehr leads the way in this exceptional and innovative product line.

ClearGehr Polyamide Rod

This brand new product is a Clear Polyamide rod. The outside surface is as extruded, and can be polished. This enables the production of a relatively clear sight glass quality material with most of the high end properties of Polyamide – Nylon material. We have supplied this material for small machined parts where neither Polycarbonate nor Acrylic would work well. Because of the natural inherit chemical resistance of Polyamide, this high end ClearGehr rod can out perform all normal transparent plastics. Give us a call to see if this new innovative product will work in your difficult application.

FDA Approved Wear Grade Acetal

Have you been looking for an extended wear Acetal material (like the PTFE filled Acetals – Delrin AF), but need it to be FDA approved? Then perhaps you should consider WearGehr. This proprietary filled Acetal material has excellent wear resistance, and retains the FDA approval of the base Acetal, unlike the PTFE filled Acetal materials which are not FDA approved. It is made in a blue color for easy identification, also it remains very machinable. Contact us for more information on this excellent high tech material. Call us at 866-832-9315 or send us a note here.

Is Nylon Food Grade

Is Nylon Food Grade

Is Nylon Rod and Sheet Food Grade

This question was very easy to answer, up until now.

First: what is Zytel 42? It is a Natural Nylon 6/6 extrusion grade plastic resin. An extremely popular and heavily used material for machinable and durable plastic parts. For as far back as we can find information, this Zytel 42 Nylon 6/6 resin has been used in numerous food contact and food processing machine components.

We have just received notice that Dupont will be making some changes to their formula for this Nylon grade. For years we have provided our clients with Dupont Zytel 42 Nylon resin extruded into sheet, rod and other profiles. The Dupont announcement states that the Zytel 42 will no longer have a food grade rating – FDA approval. They will produce a new resin called Zytel 42FG, which will have all the approvals we always had with the Zytel 42.

Why in the world would a company do such a thing? Our guess is that this is a cleaver way to increase prices significantly without a standard and blatant price increase. Let’s just hide it in a new resin package.

Nylon Sheet, Nylon Slab and Nylon Rod are all available as these:

Zytel 42 – will still be available, but without the FDA approval

Zytel 42FG – the ‘new’ resin will carry the FDA approval, but at much higher price

Nylon Food Grade still available

Large Cast Nylon Blocks 12" X 12" X 48"

These huge Cast Nylon Blocks 12″ X 12″ X 48″

What is the difference between the old Zytel 42 and the new Zytel 42FG? From what we have read so far, nothing. It is probably the same material, new name. The ‘new’ Zytel 42 is actually the new ‘dumbed’ down resin – they just took away the Food Grade label, maybe took out an ingredient or two, and viola, new Zytel 42 – non Food Grade Nylon.

This news has spread quickly through our industry. As mentioned above, we have provided this material in this grade for over 36 years for Food Grade/FDA Approved applications.

The main reason for this article is to get the news out the the marketplace. Engineers and designers have been specifying this resin for their applications, and now, with out much notice, the product they assume is Food Grade will no longer be acceptable for these applications. It is unclear at this point whether the extrusion plants will be producing product from both resins, or opting to use one or the other. It appears that Nylon Food Grade resins my become a special, or that all materials may becomes standard as Nylon Food Grade.

Is Nylon Food Grade Resin Important To You?

This is the question we find ourselves asking. Does the end user think of Nylon when they are looking for an FDA approved plastic? Or, do they consider Acetal Copolymer, Acetal Homopolymer, Polyethylene, and other materials first? Do you think of Nylon rod, bar, sheet and slab as mechanical materials to use when making gears, wear strips, and other non FDA applications?

Please take a moment and let us know you thoughts. We value your input – it will help us in evaluating the direction we want to go with our inventory.

Check our main website for more details on these and other plastic materials – www.iplasticsupply.com