October 7, 2019 Plastic Building Materials

A guide to plastic building materials and sourcing them online.

October 4, 2019

Plastic is a highly versatile material that has many unique properties which make it lightweight, corrosion-resistant, highly durable and quite cost-effective. Unlike natural elements like wood and metal, plastic is artificially made using natural and organic materials like cellulose, natural gas, salt and crude oil (its primary ingredient).

How Is Plastic Made?

The plastic making process isn’t necessarily a difficult one to understand. The building blocks of plastic are formed from the distillation of crude oil in oil refineries that leave behind what is known as ‘fractions’. These fractions are the most important ingredient in plastic manufacturing.

Once these fractions are collected two main processes are used to convert this raw-material into what is to later become plastic. Polymerization and polycondensation are the two processes used and both of them require a specific catalyst to generate various types of plastic grade quality.

Types of Plastics

They are many different types of plastics and many variations of the plastic producing formula have been used over the years to produce a variety of different kinds of plastics for different purposes. However, plastics can generally be categorized into two large categories; Thermoplastics and Thermosets.

Thermoplastics soften on heating and harden on cooling while thermosets never soften after they have been molded into shape.

There are many types of thermoplastics that are available in many everyday products such as polycarbonate (PC), polyethylene (PE), Polystyrene (PS), Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), etc. Some examples of thermosets include Epoxide (EP), Phenol-formaldehyde (PF), Polyurethane (PUR) and unsaturated polyester resins (UP).

Why Is Plastic A Good Material For Construction

Plastic is a versatile substance as it has several properties that help make is superior to other natural sources for construction materials including wood and various metals. Since plastic is a by-product of crude oil it is cheap to source as raw material and cost-effective to manufacture.

Also, unlike wood and metals like steel, iron, and zinc plastic doesn’t corrode and is perhaps the most resilient of all substances as it doesn’t degrade either. Even though plastic is damaged by UV light the process can often take decades before damage even becomes apparent. This is both an advantage and drawback of plastic-based building materials.

Plastic can be molded, laminated, and shaped to conform to any design or specifications which makes it especially handy for serving the manufacturing demands of everyday products. Everything we own in some way or form is made of plastic including your phone, bed, clothes, car and anything else you can think of.

The flexibility, strength, and lightweight nature of plastic makes it a more practical solution for many everyday products as it offers lasting durability for a fraction of the cost of other products made from more exotic materials.

There was a time when plastic-based good were considered inferior in quality but that time is now but a thing of the past. Innovation in plastic manufacturing and new formulas have resulted in types of plastics that are in many ways superior to expensive and exotic raw materials and even look luxurious and expensive.

Car manufacturers like Corvette have been using plastic-based bodies for their sports cars for decades as it helps make the car lighter and safer. Plastic is more flexible than metal and tends to collapse under impact rather than shattering or splitting.

Plastic is also widely used in building materials and is an especially popular choice of material for drainage and piping systems. The fact that plastic does not corrode or degrade by water makes it the ideal material for all your residential and commercial plumbing and drainage needs.

Where To Purchase The Best Building Plastics Online

They are so many plastic-based building materials available in the market that are essential to the upkeep, repair, and maintenance of your property. Plastic building materials can range from basic construction tools and equipment like barrier pipes, ducting accessories, and fittings to large-size oil tanks and sewage treatment plants.

Easymerchant offers a great service whereby they deliver the construction and building materials you need directly to the site helping you save on both time and money. Their inventory is often stocked with a variety of building materials of various shapes and sizes to ensure that you get the products you need without running into delays or cost over-runs.

The ability to purchase these products online is invaluable as it allows you to get all the stuff you need to be shipped over to the site when needed while you focus on the more important aspects of the construction process.

Buying online also allows you to read up on customer reviews and spend time doing the research to know exactly what you need to purchase and from where.

If you are a contractor, construction company, or handyman the need for a regular supplier for building plastics is essential as you can’t always rely on retailers for having what you need. When selecting online suppliers always look at aspects such as credibility and speed of shipping.

The Drawbacks Of Plastic & Its Alternatives

The fact that plastic is near indestructible is both a blessing and a curse. As plastic does not biodegrade and its use keeps increasing every day it is seriously impacting our environment in more ways than one.

Plastic can be found in the oceans in vast quantities and many landfills around the world contain more plastic than you can ever imagine. Ways of properly disposing of plastic are expensive and easy methods such as burning it can be extremely damaging to the air and can greatly increase pollution levels.

Even though innovation is finding new ways to tackle these growing problems efforts all around the world are underway to enforce recycling of plastic and find better ways of disposing and collecting plastic from our ocean waters.

A world without plastic is simply unimaginable and if we are to continue to buy plastic-based products it is important that we all play a part in ensuring it is properly recycled to help conserve our planet’s fragile ecosystem.

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