Everyone wants quality products, the kind that has been planned properly, will last long, function without problems, and will spare us the need to handle repairs and replacement. To ensure you receive the best plastic sheet we can manufacture, here at the Plazit-Polygal Group we conduct stringent tests and take measures to ensure the quality of our products.
The quality took on special importance over the past period, during which the Company has promoted numerous recycling projects. In these projects, we make sure to recycle every material, of every type and at every stage, whether recycling sawdust, plastic sheets at the end of their lifetime, chemical recycling of PMMA cast sheets, and of course – recycling scrap and waste material generated in the plant. We use recycled material to manufacture new plastic sheets, and there is no better example of the circular economy.
Smart Integration of Recycled Material
Recycled material naturally creates more “noise” in the manufacturing process compared to virgin raw material. When working with recycled material it is particularly important to rigorously sort and separate by type of material and color, and to ensure that it is free of foreign objects, stored under proper conditions, dried beforehand, and manufactured under suitable process conditions.
Therefore, when combining recycled material in the plastic sheets we treat the process as a new process, with all the required quality tests. Our engineers rigorously accompany the recycled material integration process and make the necessary adjustments. Owing to these efforts we were able to successfully integrate recycled materials into the range of raw materials from which we manufacture the following plastic sheets: PC, PMMA, PS, PETG, SAN.
Recycled Material, Unchanged Quality
We do not compromise on quality. The recycled material is integrated such that it does not in any way impair the quality of the plastic sheet and hardly any of its properties. The exception is the sheet’s transparency, which may be impaired. In these cases, we designate these plastic sheets for applications in which transparency is not an important requirement.
We conduct a series of quality tests to verify that the plastic sheets we manufacture meet the required quality. These tests are valid with respect to the manufacturing of both recycled material and virgin material. The tests we conduct are detailed below.
An Overview of our Quality Tests
Geometric Tests:
Sheet thickness, length, width, and curling are examined. In corrugated sheets, the wave shape obtained is also checked. With respect to MW plastic sheets, we also examine the internal walls, verify that they are complete and that no wall is too thin, which may result in a failure going forward. The geometric indicators are examined during the manufacturing process, as well as after the acclimation period during which the polymer completes the formation processes and the plastic sheet reaches its final dimensions.
Mechanical Properties:
Mechanical properties are particularly important and are an indicator of the behavior of the material under different loads. We conduct impact tests and abrasion tests as well as additional tests. Thus, irrespective of whether the plastic sheet is manufactured from recycled material, we verify that it meets our requirements.
Optical Properties
include several parameters: haze, clarity, light transmission, black spots, scratches, flow lines, and color tone for color plastic sheets. The use of recycled material may impact transparency, however, there are optical parameters that will not be impacted: black spots, scratches, and color tone. A visual defects detection system (image processing based) verifies 100% of the plastic sheets according to pre-customized specifications. By that ensures the required optical quality level.
Functional and Selectivity Tests of the Plastic Sheets
Some of the plastic sheets we manufacture include coatings that selectively screen sunlight or increase resistance to external conditions. We check the coating thickness by examining a cross-section under a microscope. We examine the selectivity and function with a spectrophotometer, in addition to conducting a range of acceleration tests.
Contraction:
The plastic sheet dimensions are also examined after heating, as this releases stresses which cause contraction. This test is conducted in a heated oven. Some of our plastic sheets undergo thermoforming at our customers’ facilities that release these same stresses, which is why this test is important.
100% Quality from every Plastic Sheet
It does not matter whether the quality problem is entirely under our control or depends on an external supplier. By means of stringent and structured work procedures, we ensure the proper functioning of all the materials we handle. When working with recycled material we do not compromise on the end product, which is why all the plastic sheets meet Plazit-Polygal’s high standard of quality.
