A plastic is a synthetic or man-made resin, a material similar in many ways to natural resins found ‘in trees and other plants. It generally has a high molecular weight. (A molecule is the smallest existing particle of a chemical compound; it is made up of at least two atoms, an atom being the smallest basic particle of a chemical element. The molecular weight is the sum of the weights of all the atoms in a molecule.)
A plastic is solid in its unprocessed and processed states, but in between, while it is being processed into finished items, it is softened enough through to be formed into a variety of shapes ranging from refrigerator containers to plastic film.
There are two major subdivisions of the huge family of plastics, made on the basis of their behavior toward heat – thermosets and thermoplastics.
Thermosets, or thermosetting plastics, generally soften only once under heat and do not soften again on subsequent heating (no more than a hard-boiled egg heating and made rigid by cooling (just as ice can time and again be “softened” into water by heating and remade into ice by cooling).
Polyethylene is a thermoplastic with outstanding properties.
The polyethylene resins are thermoplastics. What are the properties that make polyethylene a thermoplastic raw material particularly suitable for thousands of end products? There are a great many of them, such as light weight, flexibility, toughness, high chemical resistance, and outstanding electrical properties. For specific applications only some of them may be essential.
The properties of a polyethylene resin are mainly, though not exclusively, dependent on three basic molecular properties – density, average molecular weight, and molecular weight distribution. These basic properties, in turn, are controlled by the size, structure, and uniformity of the polyethylene molecule.
What is Polyethylene?
What is a plastic?
A plastic is a synthetic or man-made resin, a material similar in many ways to natural resins found ‘in trees and other plants. It generally has a high molecular weight. (A molecule is the smallest existing particle of a chemical compound; it is made up of at least two atoms, an atom being the smallest basic particle of a chemical element. The molecular weight is the sum of the weights of all the atoms in a molecule.)
A plastic is solid in its unprocessed and processed states, but in between, while it is being processed into finished items, it is softened enough through to be formed into a variety of shapes ranging from refrigerator containers to plastic film.
There are two major subdivisions of the huge family of plastics, made on the basis of their behavior toward heat – thermosets and thermoplastics.
Thermosets, or thermosetting plastics, generally soften only once under heat and do not soften again on subsequent heating (no more than a hard-boiled egg heating and made rigid by cooling (just as ice can time and again be “softened” into water by heating and remade into ice by cooling).
Polyethylene is a thermoplastic with outstanding properties.
The polyethylene resins are thermoplastics. What are the properties that make polyethylene a thermoplastic raw material particularly suitable for thousands of end products? There are a great many of them, such as light weight, flexibility, toughness, high chemical resistance, and outstanding electrical properties. For specific applications only some of them may be essential.
The properties of a polyethylene resin are mainly, though not exclusively, dependent on three basic molecular properties – density, average molecular weight, and molecular weight distribution. These basic properties, in turn, are controlled by the size, structure, and uniformity of the polyethylene molecule.