Recently, I've begun to research the plastic manufacturing industry. Upon first starting out, I honestly thought it was going to be pretty simple, but I was in for a surprise! There's actually a lot that goes into shaping some of the simplest things, like a coke bottle. Really, the process has been made much easier by experts trying to improve the field. Without the work of several individuals, the mass amounts of plastic production that incur today would never have made it. From discovering different varieties of plastics to reshaping the machinery needed for it, plastic manufacturing has truly come along a way. However, for us to get an accurate understanding of the manufacturing process, we first have to understand plastic itself.
Plastic is basically a large molecule composed of repeating structural units, also referred to as a polymer. Many manufacturers of plastic add a mixture of other compounds in order to reduce the cost and make the product better. This is often very productive. Depending on the manufacturer you go to, composition of plastic may vary, but never too drastically.
Plastic comes from the Greek word plastikos. Plastikos translates to "able to be shaped or molded." This applies to plastic because during its manufacturing, it is easily manipulated in order to fit the shape of various plastic products. When you begin to look at what kind of products are created and used by these manufacturers, you really begin to see its versatility. For instance, the thousands of different types of bottles, tubes, boxes, and plates that are produced by plastic companies every day.
There are really only two types of usable plastic. These include thermoplastics and thermosetting polymers. The main difference between these two types of plastics is that thermoplastic has gone through a chemical change to become what it is. Thermosetting polymers, however, have not been chemically changed, which means that once they've heated and solidified, they can not be reheated as is the case with thermoplastic.
There are many different categories in which you can place plastics, depending on what quality a manufacturer is most interested. For example, it's very likely that plastics are categorized by quality or physical property. These deal with aspects of plastic such as strength, temperature of transition, and density. There is also a good chance that plastics will be grouped by chemical structure: polyesters, halogenated plastics, acrylics, or polyurethanes.
You may not know this, but there are quite a few different types of plastics, some may seem familiar to you. After WWI, the pressure was on to create cheap and durable materials in order to mass produce. Thus, two new plastics were created, PVC (or polyvinyl chloride) and polystyrene. These plastics were manufactured by IG Farben from Germany, and they rose quickly in popularity. These plastics, especially PVC, continues to be a huge member of the plastic community (for things such as housing, plumbing, etc.).
These plastics only scratched the surface, for there was much work to improve over the next several years, and many continued the plastics race. A new contender entering the field was polyamide, or more commonly known as nylon. What shocked everyone so much about nylon was it's ability to stretch without being damaged. Soon after the second World War, demands for nylon climbed to a record high, with women's nylon stockings as one of the best selling products!
Plastics and Rubber Products have become a common feature in homes. For that matter even Industries have fallen hook, line and sinker for the two. Two major factors like credibility and versatility have been driving their demand. Considering the soaring demand for plastic and rubber products, we have come up with a common platform for all plastic and rubber manufacturers, suppliers, exporters and buyers, to trade with each other at the click of a mouse. A few years back, transactions used to take place ‘on –field’, with both parties sitting face-to-face, before closing the deal. Here, the major plus point is the transaction is taking place ‘on-line’ and you can strike a profitable deal right away. Sitting face-to-face can be done anytime.
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