Performance plastic materials are used in a variety of food processing and packaging machinery applications including friction and wear parts. Plastic tubing/piping handles fluids, and plastic sheet materials are used for safe, easy-to-clean cutting boards — with grades that comply with FDA, NSF and 3A dairy regulations.
Applications
- Bushings, bearings, cams
- Conveyor parts
- Feed screws
- Guide rails
- Machine guards, windows
- Pipes and tubes for fluid processing
- Pistons/plungers
- Rollers
- Seals, seats, gaskets
- Gears, sprockets
- Star wheels
- Thermoformed machine housings
- Wear strips
- Forming dies
- Scraper blades
- Cams and cam guides
- Nozzles/dispensing heads
Advantages May Include
- Lightweight for high-speed production using smaller drive motors
- Reduced maintenance and reduced contamination by eliminating lubrication
- Resistance to clean-in-place (CIP) and sanitize-in-place (SIP) cleaning chemicals
- Resistant to hot water and steam
- Long wear life
- Limited wear on food packaging and/or mating machine parts
- Transparency for easy viewing of machine during operations
- Grades available that comply with FDA, NSF, 3A dairy and other federal agency regulations
Materials
- Acetal (POM)
- Acrylic (PMMA)
- High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE)
- Nylon (PA)
- Polycarbonate (PC)
- Polyethyleneterephthalate (PET)
- Polyetheretherketone (PEEK)
- Polyetherimide (PEI)
- Polyamide-Imide (PAI)
- Polypropylene (PP)
- Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) – rigid and flexible
- Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)
- Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMW-PE)
- Visual and Metal detectable materials available
Sustainability Advantages of Performance Plastics
Polycarbonate is a long-lasting choice for conveyor systems in food processing — far stronger than the alternatives:
30x
Stronger than acrylic
200x
Stronger than glass
Source: piedmontplastics.com
85%
Performance plastics allow for 85% weight reduction when compared to metals, allowing for higher processing speeds.
Source: mcam.com
ZERO
Self-lubricating materials mean zero need for additional lubrication — which could be harmful to the environment.
Source: mcam.com
In 2012 Planters switched from glass to plastic for their line of peanut products — with major shipping gains:
84%
Reduction in shipping weight
24%
Fewer trucks needed for transport
Source: environmentalleader.com
Dry-Running Bottle-Filling Line
95,000
Gallons of water saved per year
A bottling company converted the bushings and lifting rollers in its bottle-filling machines to a dry-running line with performance plastics — saving 95,000 gallons of water annually. | Source: Performance Plastics magazine, Oct/Nov 2020
iapd
the performance plastics association
Sustainability
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