What are the advantages of using plastic profiles in the construction industry?

Plastic profiled products can replace steel and wood in a large number in the building materials industry, and have superior performance that some traditional building materials can not match, which can significantly save energy, protect the environment, improve living environment and conditions, and improve building functions. With the continuous improvement of plastic profiles building materials technology, its popularization and application will develop rapidly.

At present, plastic profiles have played an important role in modern architecture. Because of its rich color, strong decorative, not afraid of humidity, not afraid of insect erosion, easy to install, disassemble, update and clean, it is widely used in the interior decoration industry, and is favored by people.

Plastic profiles as building materials have advantages, but there are also shortcomings, so building materials to choose plastic materials, according to the performance of plastic materials, the use of the environment, supporting accessories, select suitable engineering plastic materials for use. First of all, what advantages can plastic profiles have in the construction industry?

1. Light weight and high specific strength: the general plastic density is 0.9-2.5G/CM3, only 1/8-1/4 of steel, 1/2 of aluminium and about 1% of concrete. Therefore, plastics instead of traditional materials can not only reduce the weight of buildings, but also bring convenience to construction. For example, the installation of rigid polyvinyl chloride (UP-VC) drainage pipe is much more convenient than that of cast iron pipe.

In addition, the specific strength of plastics (strength calculated by unit mass) is high. Some reinforced plastics have similar or even higher specific strength than steel, such as alloy steel. The tensile strength per unit mass of plastics is 160 MPA, while the tensile strength of glass fiber reinforced plastics is 170,400 MPA.

2. Excellent processability: Plastics can be processed by various methods. Plastic products with complex size and shape and exquisite patterns can be formed by moulding, injection, extrusion, blow moulding, casting and calendering. Usually it is much easier to process plastic than metal, and the energy consumption is low and the efficiency is high in the process of processing.

3. It has many functions: plastic is a kind of multi-functional material. On the one hand, there are many kinds of plastics with different properties. Some have strong rigidity and can be used as structural materials, such as glass fiber reinforced plastics; others are very soft, such as soft PVC, can be used as door and window seals.

On the other hand, the same kind of plastic can be designed by different formulations of materials with different properties, such as the same PVC plastic, it can be hard, soft, or foamed, can be made into door and window profiles, floor coil and wallpaper, etc.

In addition, plastic materials also have mechanical properties and designability of special functions, such as strengthening, toughening and blending technology can greatly improve the mechanical properties of plastics.

For example, the tensile strength of pure polypropylene (PP) is 23-40 MPA, and the tensile strength of 30% glass fiber reinforced PP can be as high as 100 MPA. By choosing polymers with special functions or adding fillers with special functions, plastics can be endowed with special functions, such as conductivity, flame retardant, radiation protection and barrier to certain gases.