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Piper Plastics Corp. specializes in processing thermoplastics, including:
A thermoplastic is a plastic that fuses, cures, or sets by the application of heat, instead of because of a chemical reaction (as is the case with thermoset plastics). What this means is that as the temperature of a thermoplastic part rises, the part becomes more flexible.
In theory, it should be possible to re-mold a thermoplastic part into something completely new, but in practice, this isn’t really the case. Most often, dip molded thermoplastic parts are chopped up into tiny little pieces and then recycled for use in other thermoplastic manufacturing processes like extrusion, injection molding, and calendaring.
Also referred to as polyvinyl chloride, PVC is often known as a material called vinyl. Here at Piper, PVC is processed in two forms:
Comprised in part of PVC resin, plastisol is an incredibly versatile compound that is a liquid at room temperature. Able to be formulated by the team at Piper to meet your products’ unique specifications, plastisol has a dielectric strength of approximately 400 volts/mil and is resistant to a wide range of chemicals.
The nylon we process is also a powder, and we use it in our fluidized bed process as well. Nylon powder fuses into a solid at 400F is FDA approved and has a glossy finish.
Finally, Piper process a small amount of silicone rubber to make retention cuffs for medical devices that can be directly glued to PVC components. This silicone rubber is used in our custom extrusion process and is used because of its excellent low-temperature flexibility and high dielectric strength.