PE & PP Spotlight
Polyethylene (PE) and Polypropylene (PP) are two of the largest volume thermoplastics used today and are available in a wide range of grades and formulations - commonly grouped into Low, Medium and High density. The various formulations of these popular polyolefins impart a wide range of properties making them appropriate for countless applications. Generally speaking, polyolefins are tough, chemical resistant and offer good electrical properties with a low coefficient of friction and moisture absorption. They are relatively light weight and easy to fabricate. Polyolefins find proven applications in a wide range of markets from medical and chemical to toys and sporting goods and oil and gas to food processing and marine. Following is an overview of a variety of materials from sheet, rod and tube to massive shapes and profiles.

Artek offers rod dowelling services to provide close tolerance Duravar® rod stock with excellent concentricity to meet the needs of today’s critical machine and job shop operations.

Artek is a leading supplier of UHMW rod stock to the plastic distribution market place. Their full line of extruded UHMW-PE rod is offered in diameters from 1/4" up through 10" in virgin, reprocessed and enhanced formulations.

Artek provides a large range of standard diameters, dowelled to close tolerance, ranging from 1" up through 3" diameter. In addition they will quote custom dowelled diameters upon request.

Their dowelling system provides excellent diameter concentricity with tolerances as close as +/- .003" to help improve secondary machining processes.

The rod is available in a variety of standard and custom colors that meet FDA and USDA requirements. Artek can also color match to meet the needs of the project.

In addition to the traditional 5' and l0' industry standard lengths, Artek can provide up to 20' lengths.

Full Sheet Stock

Artek also introduced the newest member of the Duravar UHMW-PE family of extruded and skived full sheet as a standard product line. Artek’s in-line stress relieving process reduces stress, improves productivity and minimizes waste when cutting this prime material into blocks or strips. The sheet has excellent surface finish and thickness consistency. Sheet sizes are 48” x 96” and 48” x 120” in thickness from 1/8” up to 2”.

For additional information, contact Randall Kirkpatrick, Artek, Inc., 3311 Enterprise Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46808, 800-762-6808, Fax: 260-484-6914, Web: www.artek-inc.com.

UHMW High Bond Tape

UHMW High Bond (HB) Tape has all the benefits of strong, slippery, abrasion-resistant UHMW (ultra-high molecular weight) polyethylene tape, plus a super-high bond adhesive. UHMW High Bond is an excellent choice for difficult-to-bond, low surface energy surfaces such as powder-coated, plastic, foam, oily metals, slightly textured. UHMW-HB (#19-HB Series) even sticks to high slip surfaces: Teflon®, Acrylic, PE and more.

The tape is available in many film thicknesses: .010", .020", .030", .060", .090" and .125". Adhesive is .002" thick. Black Semi- Conductive, Anti- Static UHMW High Bond Tape is also available. Standard Widths are .5", .75", 1", 2", 6", 12". Rolls are 5 yards long. Custom widths, thicknesses and lengths are also available. CS Hyde Company can custom die-cut UHMW HB into labels, discs, squares, etc.

For additional information, contact Tiffany Dost, CSHyde Company, 1351 N. Milwaukee Ave., Lake Villa, IL 60046, 800-461-4161, Fax 800-441-8063, E-mail: sales@cshyde.com, Web: www.cshyde.com.

35 Years of Firsts

In the mid-1970s Crown Plastics, Inc . perfected the art of compression molding thin-gauge UHMW-PE into continuous coils. The tough, lightweight plastic was flexible, smooth and easily machined.

A few years later Crown’s R&D people discovered how to make UHMW coils bondable. Adhesive-backed UHMW-PE tape was an industry first.

In 1992 Crown Plastics introduced a new sintered base into the snowboard materials market. Called DuraSurf™, it rapidly set the standard for high-performance and drew international attention in 2006 when 4 of the 6 medalists in the Men’s and Women’s Halfpipe Competition rode boards made with DuraSurf base.

In 2007 Crown Plastics introduced Dura-Slick™, a bondable UHMW product made especially for the drift boat industry in the Pacific Northwest. At .093” thick, black Dura-Slick is UV stable, lighter than UHMW sheet and less expensive than other hull treatments.

For additional information, contact Crown Plastics, Inc., 116 May Dr., Harrison, OH 45030, 800-328-0238, Fax: 513-367-4004, E-mail: info@ crownplastics.com, Web: www.crownplastics.com and www.durasurf.com.

Custom Profile Extrusion

Garland Manufacturing specializes in custom profile extrusion of GAR-DUR® UHMW Polyethylene. Garland manufactures extruded board stock to 24” wide of unlimited length, rod to 8”, with special-order availability of 12” hollowcore stock, and bars and tubes of various standard dimensions. GAR-DUR UHMW is produced in virgingrade per ASTM D-4020-05a with a minimum molecular weight of 4.2 million; filled and additive varieties are available by special request.

Garland can also handle your specialized applications, including conveyor, transportation, wastewater treatment, agricultural machinery and any other high-impact or highabrasion use.

For additional information, contact Dan Garland, Garland Manufacturing Co., P.O. Box 538, Seco, ME 04072, 207-283-3693, E-mail: dgarland@garlandmfg.com., Web: www.garlandmfg.com.

30% GF Polypropylene

GEHR Plastics offers GEHR Polypropylene, which demonstrates a high mechanical and tensile strength and is coupled with great impact strength. GEHR Polypropylene resists stress cracking and is easy to weld. Chemical and electrical properties are excellent and operating temperatures range between 41°F to 210°F. Characteristics include low density, low moisture absorption, good heat resistance, high chemical resistance, high tensile strength, high surface strength but low abrasion resistance. Natural is copolymer resin and colored is homopolymer.

GEHR also offers GEHR HiPro® 30% glass reinforced polypropylene. This material maintains the excellent chemical and corrosion resistance of unfilled PP with added superior dimensional stability (CLTE = 3.0 x 10√5 in/in/°F), higher surface stiffness, higher temperature resistance with a Heat Deflection Temperature of +319°F and much better compressive strength.

The color is black and is targeted for higher temperature chemical applications where cost is an issue.

For additional information, contact Bill Shields, GEHR Plastics USA, 24 Creek Circle, Boothwyn, PA 19061, 800- PVC-GEHR/610-497-8941, Fax: 610-497-8901, E-mail: info@gehrplastics.com, Web: www.gehrplastics.com.

Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, King Plastic Corporation, is a leading innovator and manufacturer of high-quality polymer sheets, slabs and massive shapes. While the company is well known for its King StarBoard® family of marine polymers, there is much more to King. Its polymer products include an extensive list of commodity polymers: UHMW/VHMW, HDPE/LDPE, cutting board, borated PE, pipe grade and polypropylene, as well as colorful signage/playground PE, sturdy restroom partition sheets, and engineering materials such as ABS.

The King heritage is a tireless commitment to innovation, quality and service. Their comprehensive line of branded and commodity products are manufactured at a stateof- the-art 150,000 sq. ft. factory in North Port, Florida, and distributed worldwide. Best of all their knowledgeable and experienced staff provide answers, not just prices to distributors.

King Plastic Corporation offers 29 products in sheets, slabs and massive shapes, is and is capable of manufacturing sheets to more than 120’ x 8’, slabs to more than 30” thick and massive shapes to more than 5,000 lbs.

For additional information, contact Lou Stegner, King Plastic Corporation, 1100 N. Toledo Blade Blvd., North Port, FL 43288, 941-493-5502, Fax: 941-497-3274, Email: lou@kingplastic.com, Web: www.kingplastic.com.

PE Channels

Petro Extrusion Technologies Inc., (PET Inc.) specializes in engineering grade thermoplastics as well as custom and stock products in low, linear low, medium and high density polyethylene. PET, Inc. carries a stock line of 6 different PE channel shapes. The stock channels can also be made-to order in any desired cut lengths.

PET Inc., also produces an endless variety of custom shapes and tube sizes ranging from 1/32” diameter up to 6” diameter. Petro has custom co-extrusion capability and can extrude in any combination of compatible PE materials or colors as your requirement dictates.

They specialize in neon and specialty custom colors, as well as all standard colors.

For additional information, contact Robert Petrozziello, Petro Extrusion Technologies, Inc., P. O. Box 99, 490 South Ave., Garwood, NJ 07027, 800-229-3338/908-789-3338, Fax: 908-789-0434, E-mail: rpetro@petroextrusion.com, Web: www.petroextrusion.com.

PP Stock Shapes

Plastifab Industries offers a comprehensive product line of standard stock shapes in Low Density, High Density and Polypropylene commonly known as polyolefins.

Polyolefins finds proven applications in markets such as medical, chemical, toys, sporting goods, oil and gas and food processing. LDPE, HDPE and polypropylene rods are available in sizes ranging from 1/8” to 16” diameter in natural and black. Polyolefin heavy wall tubular bar is offered with a minimum ID of 2” through and OD of 22”.

Semi-rigid polyolefin tubing is a mainstay in oil, hydraulic fluid, water and beverage transfer, oil and gas and is available in Diameters as small as .170" inside in natural and a wide selection of colors.

Welding rods are available in LDPE, HDPE and polypropylene and are used in conjunction with sheet and plate to fabricate tanks, tank liners and boxes for corrosive environments. Polyolefin standard stock shapes are typically manufactured from FDA-approved resins and meet USDA, NSF and Canadian Department of Agricultural requirements for direct food contact.

For additional information, contact Plastifab Industries, 7777 Transcanadienne, Saint Laurent, Quebec, H4S 1L3, Canada, 800-361-4774/514-325-9840, Fax: 514-325- 522, E-mail: infoprod@plastifab.ca, Web: www.plastifab.ca.

PP Sheet

Polygal announced the addition of a unique, new and improved 8mm polypropylene sheet for the building materials and commercial greenhouse markets. The sheet, designed for use as side and end walls in the greenhouse market, can also be specified and installed for interior applications in the architectural market where privacy and/or back lighting is desired. The new 8mm polypropylene sheet by Polygal is UV protected through the entire sheet, not just co-extruded on one or two surfaces.

For additional information, contact Ward Ogle, Polygal, Inc., P. O. Box 410592, Charlotte, NC 28241, 800-527-0095, Fax: 704-588-7400, E-mail sales@polygal.com, Web: www.polygal.com.

Westlake Plastics Company offers Medical grade Propylux HS. Medical grade Propylux HS is made from an FDA approved polypropylene resin. Through a unique heat-stabilizing process, the extruded material is able to withstand higher temperatures with less water absorption than standard polypropylene. Recommended sterilization techniques for Propylux HS include steam autoclaving and cold sterilization.

Applications include provisional trials and instrument handles. The material offers excellent chemical resistance, is laser markable, lot controlled and traceable, has low moisture absorption, is FDA resin - USP Class VI and has superior dimensional stability.

For additional information, contact Gary King, Westlake Plastics Company, P.O. Box 127, Lenni, PA 19052, 800-999-1700/610-459-1000, Fax: 610-459-1084, E-mail: gary@westlakeplastics.com, Web: www.westlakeplastics.com.