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Main Materials of Products
You may wonder basic information about what we are manufacturing from virgin materials to produce drinking cups and coffee cups.You will find basic and short information about plastic, what we are using (PP)
Plastics are polymers, that is, long chain molecules made from smaller molecules called monomers. The polymers are made in large vessels under special conditions of temperature and pressure, using special catalysts. At this stage, the polymers are in the form of resin pellets or powders.
There are about 40 different plastics or polymers used today. Each has a different chemical composition and set of properties that makes it suitable for certain applications.
Plastic products are made in three stages:
1. Resin pellets or powders are heated to soften them
2. The softened material is formed into a certain shape
3. Product is cooled, retaining the shape.
There are several ways that plastic products are formed. These include injection moulding (for specially shaped objects, such as cups, toys and plumbing fittings), extrusion moulding (for plastic sheets, pipes and tubes) and blow moulding (to make bottles and drums). Other techniques are used to manufacture fibres, biscuit trays, margarine tubs and foam trays .
To help identify different plastics, manufacturers stamp a Plastics Identification Code on their products. This code is a number inside a triangle with chasing arrows. These codes only identify the product and do not indicate that the product can be recycled. The codes for the seven most common plastics are shown in the table further down this page.
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