Chemicals easily eat through many materials, but they've met their match with performance plastics. The right plastics can ensure a safe, durable, long-lasting performance even under the harshest conditions — from laboratory equipment to underground fuel systems and pharmaceutical research facilities.
Applications
- Laboratory equipment
- Municipal water and wastewater industry piping
- Drain-waste-vent systems
- Fume hoods and ducting
- Pump and valve components
- Renal care facilities
- Pharmaceutical, biopharmaceuticals and medical research
- High purity semiconductor industry
- HPLC tubing and valve components
- Lab countertops or other processing areas
- Chemical containers, storage or retention
- Plating tanks, barrels, parts
- Safety barriers, such as eye shields, face shields
- Pulp and paper bleaching
- Metals preparation and mining
- Fuel (underground transport and holding systems)
- Gaskets, seals and spacers
- Food, dairy and beverage
- Piping
- Tank and tanker linings
- Wall linings
Advantages May Include
- Corrosion resistant (broad spectrum chemical resistance)
- Low friction (ease of flow)
- Resistant to a wide range of temperatures
- FDA and USDA approved
- Easy to install
- Meets flammability standards
- Ease of fabrication (machined, welded and formed)
- High purity
- Static dissipation
- Excellent strength-to-weight ratios
- Long lasting, durable
- Wide range of operating pressure / burst resistant
- Lightweight
- Able to color code to indicate contents
Materials
- Alpha-Nucleated PP-DWU Twin-Wall Sheets (PP-HKP)
- Chlorinated Polyvinyl Chloride (CPVC)
- Ethylene-Tetrafluoroethylene (ECTFE)
- Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic (FRP)
- Flame Retardant Polypropylene (FR PP)
- Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene (FEP)
- High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE)
- Nylon / Cast Nylon (PA)
- Perfluoroalkoxy (PFA)
- Polyethylene (PE)
- Polyethylene, High Heat Resistant, UV Stabilized (PE-HWU)
- Polypropylene Copolymer (CPP), Homopolymer (PPH)
- Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)
- Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
- Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF)
- Polyphenylene Sulfide (PPS)
- Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMW-PE)
Sustainability Advantages of Performance Plastics
Many chemical production facilities spend as much as 2% of their sales on maintenance directly tied to the impact of corrosion alone. This expense could be mitigated by the use of performance plastics.
Source: Plastic Solutions for the Chemical Industry by Mark Kramer, IAPD article in Feb/March 2012 issue
High purity PVDF is non-leaching and will not support growth of biological impurities, making it suitable for high and ultrapure applications.
Source: processengineer.com
Polyethylene has superior abrasion resistance — using a sand-slurry method that makes it 50% more abrasion-resistant than steel.
Source: processengineer.com
Thermoplastics are available that are 100% inert to corrosive chemicals across the entire pH range, enabling processors and equipment manufacturers alike to preempt corrosion and contamination while significantly cutting cost, weight and maintenance.
Source: processengineer.com
Fiberglass Reinforced Plastics (FRP) are lightweight — approximately 25% the weight of steel — and typically provide approximately 50% of lengthwise tensile and flexural strength of steel.
Source: processengineer.com/category/news/page/3/
/gal
Many chemical products weigh 10 pounds or more per gallon, making the strength-to-weight ratio of performance plastics critical in their containment in smaller vessels — reducing structural load while maintaining full integrity.
Source: processengineer.com
Champions