Industrial Metal Finishing
The use of plastics in all manufacturing applications has grown over the past 30 years, with plastics replacing metal as a preferred material for many industrial applications. Mechanical and engineered plastics, along with new composites and advanced plastics, have improved, making them more widely used for parts and components.
The properties exhibited by plastics materials that made them popular include:
- High wear resistance
- Corrosion and moisture resistance
- Temperature resistance
- Low thermal conductivity
- Low deformation
- High strength to weight ratio
Advanced plastics have improved on these properties, increasing the strength to weight ratio and high wear. As a result, plastics have become the material of choice for many components, replacing metals, especially for applications that are exposed to moisture or corrosive materials, extreme temperatures or high wear. These components do not rust, expand or contract with temperature changes, or wear out as quickly as metal components. And, with improved strength to weight ratios, equipment manufactured with plastic parts is lightweight, durable and more fuel efficient than equipment manufactured with metal parts.
Today, plastics are used for:
- Machined components, including gears, sprockets and fasteners
- Pipe, conduits and rails
- Hydraulic equipment
- Electronic components and connectors
- Protective film and packaging
- Processing equipment, such as tanks, vessels, augers, chutes and hoppers
- nterior and exterior skins for aircraft, automobiles, buses.
They have replaced metals in most of these applications. As a leading distributor of mechanical, engineered and advanced plastics for over 40 years, Nationwide Plastics can assist you in selecting the best material for your application and can provide materials that will perform better than most metals in your application.
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