Cadmium Stabilisers Cadmium (Cd) based systems have been available for many years due to their excellent performance qualities. However, in the European Union area, their use was phased out voluntarily as part of the industry’s Voluntary Commitment of 2000 due to concerns about toxicity and possible accumulation in the body. Cadmium was used in the…

Property modification of PVC products Since PVC has a high polarity and high compatibility with a variety of other high-performance plastics, it is possible to mix these easily to form polymer alloys. By polymer alloying techniques some of the shortcomings of rigid PVC products can be modified. Fig.1 shows the outline of property modification through…

The PVC production process explained How PVC is manufactured PVC production usually refers to the manufacture of PVC resin, which is the basis for the plethora of PVC products around us. Three types of PVC manufacture exist: suspension polymerisation, emulsion polymerisation and bulk polymerisation. PVC made from suspension is by far the most common. Vinyl…

A Petrochemical Product Although PVC can be produced from a range of hydrocarbons including coal, and derivatives of plants such as sugar cane, the bulk of world production is currently manufactured using the chemical compound ethylene. Ethylene (or ethene) which has the chemical formula C2H4, is a product of the oil & gas industry. PVC…

The PVC Industry The European PVC chain, from resin and additive manufacture to the final product, involves many thousands of companies. Resin producers are petrochemical companies producing large quantities, and hence are in limited numbers. The members of ECVM are representative of this category. Additives producers are chemical companies generally also producing relatively large quantities. The…

PVC Strength PVC is extensively used for municipal water supply/sewage pipes, spouts, profiles, etc., since its mechanical properties such as tensile strength and tensile modulus are better than those of other general purpose olefin plastics, and these products are robust and durable. When plasticisers are added, PVC shows rubber-like elasticity with high tensile strength and…

PVC, PE, PP and PS are general purpose plastics. The features of the particular plastic are determined by its chemical composition and type of molecular structure (molecular formation: crystalline/amorphous structure) PVC has an amorphous structure with polar chlorine atoms in the molecular structure. Having chlorine atoms and the amorphous molecular structure are inseparably related. Although…

he chemical process for making PVC involves taking the simplest unit, called the monomer, and linking these monomer molecules together in the polymerisation process. Long molecular chains are formed called polymers (which are also called macromolecules). This is the case for PVC, which is made from vinyl chloride monomer known usually by its initials VCM…

The history of PVC Man has worked hard from the earliest times to develop synthetic materials which would offer benefits not found in the natural products around him. PVC is one of the oldest synthetic materials with the longest history in industrial production. Its early history is of multiple and accidental discovery in different places…

Plastics are also called synthetic resins and are broadly classified into two categories: thermosetting resins and thermoplastic resins. The thermosetting resins include phenolic resin and melamine resin, which are thermally hardened and never become soft again. Thermoplastic resins include PVC, polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS) and polypropylene (PP), which can be re-softened by heating. Usually, thermoplastics…