| By :
Nadine Davis
Copyright (c) 2010 Nadine Davis With solid long-term growth expected in the building industry in Australia, demand for extruded PVC profiles is expected to continue. The challenge for plastic manufacturers is to keep themselves informed of market changes and be ready to respond with new products and finishes. The trend at the moment in plastics is for a high-gloss finish even in unlikely products such as extruded PVC profiles. These profiles are now substantially used by many industries for the ultra high levels of gloss finish. Specific interest has come from the building and construction industries and the marine and mining industries. To understand how this is achieved requires a quick lesson on plastics extrusion. Basically, this is a high volume process in which raw plastic is melted under controlled conditions into a continuous profile and therefore is particularly suitable for producing piping, tubing, adhesive tape, wire insulation, window frames and other elongated-type items. There is a surprising fact in the understanding of how a high gloss surface is achieved. Gloss is actually just a visual impression created by the amount of light that is reflected from a surface - the more light that is reflected, the higher the level of gloss. To the uninitiated, this seems implausible as most people would think that gloss is a result of some surface coating being applied to an item to make it shine, a bit like floor polish. In the plastics industry, this gloss finish is dependent on the surface structure of the product under manufacture and requires control of the melt formulation and the melt strength. There are a number of procedural factors that affect both of these components of the process including the melt temperature, degree of fusion and molecular weight. Low melt strength in the formulation can produce low extruded profile gloss. High molecular weight allows for higher melt strength which produces high gloss surface structures. Surface finish is an important part of the buying decision for extruded profiles such as window and door frames, and while these products can be purchased in both a matte and glossy finish, the general market trend worldwide is away from matte and solidly towards very glossy surfaces, which look fantastic and are much easier to clean. PVC plastic, when used under the carefully controlled conditions of the manufacturing processes noted earlier, can very easily be manipulated in a way that pleases consumers of today. There is no additional machinery required or extensive changes to the manufacturing process, making it the ideal material for quick responses to the fickle fashions of today.
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