Plastics | ADPLAST

Plastics are derived from natural organic materials such as cellulose, coal, natural gas, salt, and of course crude oil. Crude oil is a complex mixture of thousands of compounds first distilled in a refinery and then incorporated into the production of thermoplastics.

In effect, heavy crude oil is separated into groups of lighter components (fractions) in the refinery treatment. As a result, each fraction is a mixture of hydrocarbon chains (chemical compounds of carbon and hydrogen), which differ in size and molecular structure. Naphtha in particular plays a crucial role in the production of plastics.

Polymerization and polycondensation are the two main processes used in the production of plastics. Each polymer has its own structure, size and characteristics.

We group, plastics into two main polymer families:

Thermoplastics (softens when heated and hardens when cooled).
Thermosets (do not soften after being molded).

In fact the development of plastics began more than 150 years ago with the use of natural materials with intrinsic plastic properties, such as chewing gum.

Soon after, in the process of evolution, rubber, nitrocellulose, collagen, and galalite appeared. Today, there is a wide variety of synthetic materials that we recognize as plastics.

Alexander Parkes invented, in 1855, one of the first examples through his invention Parkesine,
PVC polymerized for the first time in 1872
Later in 1907, Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland created Bakelite, the first mass-produced synthetic plastic.

Thus, after Baekeland’s creation, new plastics were developed with a great diversity of properties.

Adpalst provides a wide range of additives that give unique characteristics to the following thermoplastics:

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)
Polycarbonate (PC)
Polyethylene (PE)
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)
Polypropylene (PP)
Polystyrene (PS)
Expanded Polystyrene (EPS)
Polyurethane (PUR and PU)