The world produced 360 billion tons of plastic in 2019. Therefore, if your business needs plastic, it will be easy for you to find it. What is harder is to find types of plastic that raise the quality of your products or processes significantly enough.
You may think that this means you need to find the strongest plastic possible. While you wouldn’t be wrong, ‘strength’ has a lot of definitions. For example, one plastic may have heat resistance but still be rather brittle.
Therefore, which materials count as the strongest plastics depends on how users use them. To know which plastics are best for your business’ purposes, it’s best to research the strengths of all of them. Read on to start with this knowledge journey.
Polycarbonate
When manufacturers need a clear material that has the tensile strength of plastic rather than glass, polycarbonate is often their top choice. It is a thermoplastic that is easy to shape and very tough and stiff. It is also lightweight and resistant to impact and heat.
The major downside to this material is that it isn’t scratch resistant and is expensive. Still, this doesn’t stop manufacturers from using it in skylights, eyeglasses, and more.
PAI (Polyamideimide)
Polyamideimide is a plastic with high tensile strength. Experts have estimated it to be around 21,000 psi. With this strength also comes resistance to heat and radiation.
You can find PAI plastic parts in extremely hot places such as in jet engines. The material is also used to make various fears, valves, and more.
Nylon
Nylon tensile strength is about 12,400 psi. It also has the benefits of a high melting point and is resistant to chemicals like alcohol. Abrasion resistance is also a major benefit.
It often finds a place as a substitute for natural fabrics in products such as clothing and ropes. Sometimes, manufacturers will also use it in place of weaker metals. In addition, it is used to reinforce rubber materials such as car tires.
ABS (Arylonitrile Butadiene Styrene)
Arylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) not only has great stiffness and impact resistance, but it is also very easy to shape. In addition, it is beautiful, easy to paint, and doesn’t take the strongest plastic epoxy to bond it to other materials. For these reasons, it is a highly popular choice for 3-D printing.
Beyond this, manufacturers will often use ABS parts in golf clubs, car bumpers, camera bodies, and more.
After Learning About the Strongest Plastic, Read Our Other Articles
As a last tip, remember that you don’t have to go about researching different types of plastics alone. Plastic manufacturers will probably have many experts available via their customer service line. From them, you can get answers to any questions that you have.
After learning about the strongest plastic, check out our other articles. You can find a wealth of information in our hundreds of other pieces. With such a myriad of topics, you will definitely find something that you like.