Wires, cables, hoses, pipes, and profiles are only a few applications for PE. Applications for pipes range from 48-inch-diameter thick-walled black pipes for industrial and urban pipelines to small cross-section yellow pipes for natural gas. The use of large diameter hollow wall pipe in place of sewer lines and storm drains made of concrete is expanding quickly.
Thermoforming and sheets
Many large picnic coolers include thermoformed liners composed of PE, which gives durability, lightness, and toughness. Fenders, tank liners, pan guards, shipment crates, and tanks are examples of additional sheet and thermoformed items. Mulch or pool bottoms, which depend on MDPE’s toughness, chemical resistance, and impermeability, are two significant and quickly expanding sheet applications.
Blowing molds
The United States sells more than one-third of its HDPE for blow molding. They range from small refrigerators, large refrigerators, automotive fuel tanks, and canisters to bottles of bleach, motor oil, detergent, milk, and still water. Similar grades can be used for sheet and thermoforming applications since melt strength, ES-CR, and toughness are distinctive markers of blow molding grades.
injection
Smaller containers (less than 16oz) are frequently produced using blow molding for the packaging of shampoos, cosmetics, and prescription medications. An advantage of this method is that the finished bottles are automatically trimmed, unlike standard blow molding procedures that require post-finishing activities. Although some narrow MWD grades are utilized to enhance surface polish, medium to wide MWD grades are typically used.
injection molding
One fifth of the domestically manufactured HDPE is used in applications ranging from 5-gsl cans to reusable thin-walled beverage cups. There are lower fluidity grades with toughness and higher fluidity grades with machinability, and injection molding grades typically have a melt index of 5 to 10. Thin-walled commodities and food packaging, hard, long-lasting food and paint cans, and applications with exceptional resistance to environmental stress cracking, such 90-gallon garbage cans and tiny motor fuel tanks, are some uses for this material.
turning molding
When materials are processed using this technology, they are typically crushed into a powder and then melted and flowing in a thermal cycle. Rotomolding employs crosslinkable and general purpose PE classes. Its melt index typically runs from 3 to 8, and its general density for MDPE/HDPE is typically between 0.935 and 0.945g/CC with a narrow MWD, giving the product a high impact and little warpage. Higher MI grades are typically not appropriate because they lack the rotomolded goods’ intended impact and environmental stress cracking resistance.
Applications for high performance rotomoulding make use of the special qualities of its chemically crosslinkable grades. These grades have outstanding environmental stress crack resistance and toughness during the first stage of the molding cycle when they flow nicely. resistant against weather and abrasion. Large containers ranging from 20,000-gallon agricultural storage tanks to 500-gallon storage tanks used to carry various chemicals are perfectly suited for cross-linkable PE.
film
Normal blown film processing or flat extrusion processing are typically used in PE film processing. The majority of PEs are used for films; options include linear low density PE (LLDPE) or general-purpose low density PE (LDPE). When great stretchability and excellent barrier qualities are required, HDPE film grades are typically employed. For instance, HDPE film is frequently used in supermarket bags, food packaging, and product bags.