It’s Plastic, so it’s POLY, right?

Hey, Plastics Australia, can you make this thing in Poly for me?

Well maybe, depending on what type of poly your application needs.

You see, there are almost as many types of plastic with Poly in their names as there are Smith’s in the telephone directory.

Well, maybe not that many, but you get what I mean.

There’s

• Polyvinyl Chloride,
• Polypropylene,
• Polycarbonate,
• Polyamide,
• Polymethyl Acrylate and
• Polyester, 

 just to name a few. 

But what makes one different from the other, and which is better to use when, AND Plastics Australia, can you work with it?

Here’s a quick overview.

Polyvinyl Chloride, commonly known as PVC comes in hard or softer variations.  The hard stuff is most commonly used to manufacture things like rainwater gutters and drainage pipes. This one is not for us. But, the soft stuff (made soft by adding plasticizers) is used for making ring binders, pockets, pouches and bags – that’s our everyday!  PVC is extremely versatile and comes in a wide variety of colours, thicknesses and textures.

Polypropylene 

To our way of thinking, this one is the genuine thing.  Polypropylene is also extremely versatile, being used to manufacture battery housings, car trim panels, ring binders, packaging boxes, display stands & more.  And if PVC is our everyday, then Polypropylene is our every other day.  Also like PVC, it is available in various thicknesses and colours.

<<insert images of ring binders, boxes>>

Polycarbonate, also known as Lexan is generally manufactured in clears or translucent colours as it’s heavily used for car tail light lenses, baby bottles, security glazing, & food display cabinets.  We often use it to create specialist rulers.

Polyamide is better known as Nylon. Nylon was the first synthetic fiber and is widely used in the textiles industry, and to make fishing line.   Products made from Polyamide (Nylon) are extremely hard wearing, particularly if the product requires the material to hinge, as evidenced by our WeLoc Resealing Clip & Gripper products and our Ergo Binders.

Polymethyl Acrylate is the fancy way to say “Acrylic”, also know by it’s trademark names of Perspex and Plexiglas.   Acrylics are often used for wind screens, fish tanks, light diffusing panels and safety guards.  We can supply a range of custom products in Acrylic.

Polyester, sometimes called PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) Terylene or Mylar is ideal for vacuum forming processing. A common use is soft drink bottles.  We use it to make point-of-sale displays & dispensers, medical packaging, vending machine fronts & food displays.