PVC FOAM BOARD

Inventions have helped us to improve the way we live, consume, build, and thrive. Technology has helped bring revolution in the entire arena spanning our lives. This holds true in case of construction materials as well. There were days when construction was done using just soil or clay without any binding material. And when we look around today, we see the shimmering glass offices and marble-stoned buildings. Humans kept experimenting to bring out the best of natural resources available at hand and create substances that are better in quality and last longer than their natural substitutes. One such material is Poly Vinyl Chloride, widely known as PVC. It is highly preferred these days due to it is lightweight, strength, durability and most of all, water-resistant characteristics.

PVC foam board manufacturing companies provide it for all types of construction applications be it indoor or outdoor owing to its high usability. It has been a good replacement for wood which tends to have all weather effects and is likely to corrode in a few years.

PVC Board comes as a finished product and is ready to be installed. This is not the case with plywood. For instance, on plywood there has to be an application of laminate to make it water proof, termite proof and fire retardant. The cost of a PVC Board might sound more to you at the first sight, but in reality it is much cheaper. There is no wastage of the product material on manufacturing of the PVC Board, whereas to give the desired shape and design to the wood, there is material wastage in Plywood. This increases the price of the Plywood Board, in comparison to the PVC Board.

PVCs are a form of composite combining wood-based elements with polymers. The processes for manufacturing PVCs include extrusion, injection molding, and compression molding or thermoforming (pressing). Newer manufacturing processes for PVCs include additive manufacturing via fused layer modeling and laser sintering. An important constraint for polymers used in PVCs is requiring process conditions (melt temperature, pressure) that will not thermally degrade the wood filler. Wood degrades around 220°C; thus, general-purpose polymers like polyethylene and poly vinyl chloride are typically used for manufacturing PVCs. Wood fibers are inherently hydrophilic because of the hydroxyl groups contained in the cellulose and hemicellulose molecular chains. Thus, modification of the wood fiber via chemical or physical treatments is very critical to making improved PVCs. The most abundant profiles made from wood–plastic composites are boards or lumber used in outdoor decking applications.

Although early PVC products were mainly extruded for profiled sections, nowadays, many injected parts made of PVC are being introduced for various industries, including electrical casings, packaging, daily living supplies, and civil engineering applications. Mold and mildew and color fading of PVCs tend to be the durability issues of prime importance for PVCs. Most recent research on PVC durability focuses on studies to better understand the mechanisms contributing to various degradation issues as well as methods to improve durability. Most PVC products in the USA are utilized in building materials with few exceptions for residential and commercial building applications, which means that building codes are the most important national rules for the PVC manufacturers.

Plastic and wood wastes have been a main environmental concern. Plastic is the biggest problem due to its high amount of waste generated, non-biodegradability and the fastest depletion of natural resources regarding its short life cycle, therefore increased amount of material utilized in its production, and waste generated. The same applies to wood with lesser degree where it is depleting trees and forests and the wastes mainly are either burned or disposed; resulting in extra consumption, depletion, and pollution of nature.

Several worldwide attempts have been adopted; especially in the developed countries, to take advantage of these types of waste especially with the raised need for alternatives to virgin materials. PVC is a product which could be obtained from plastic and wood. PVC is a composite with a rapid growing usage consisting of a mixture of wood waste and polymeric material. Many trials of obtaining a PVC product were basically built on the concept of a Cradle to Cradle approach where the material is recycled at the end of its life cycle to produce a Cradle (new) product and thus close the loop and imitate the natural ecosystem. As a consequence, this minimizes the solid waste content and conserves the natural resources. Therefore, costs, energy, and depletion of virgin materials are reduced. In addition, it assures the sustainability over the incoming years for future generations’ use.

PVC has become currently an important address of research that gained popularity over the last decade especially with its properties and advantages that attracted researchers such as: high durability, Low maintenance, acceptable relative strength and stiffness, fewer prices relative to other competing materials, and the fact that it is a natural resource.

Other advantages have been strength points including : the resistance in opposition to biological deterioration especially for outdoor applications where untreated timber products are not suitable, the high availability of fine particles of wood waste is a main point of attraction which guarantees sustainability, improved thermal and creep performance relative to unfilled plastics where It can be produced to obtain structural building applications including: profiles, sheathings, decking, roof tiles, and window trims. On the other hand, PVCs are not nearly as stiff as solid wood; however, they are stiffer than unfilled plastics. In addition, they do not require special fasteners or design changes in application as they perform like conventional wood.

As mentioned, the reasons for using PVC are many; however, there are other causes that men forced many countries to tend for using alternative sources to virgin materials. In the United States, for example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, by the beginning of 2004, has phased out the usage of wood treated with chemicals such as the chromate copper arsenate (CCA) to prevent environmental and microbial degradation. As this type of wood was used in the building products’ market concerned with residential applications such as decking, the need for the alternative survived the PVC market. In Europe, environmental concerns are focused on limiting the use of finite resources and the need to manage waste disposal; therefore, the tendency to recycle materials at the end of their useful life has increased tremendously.

Recycling polymers in Europe was less preferred than other types of materials such as metal; however, illegality of land filling and waste management priority in many European countries were the motive to do so. In addition to the enforced environmental policies, the growth of environmental awareness led to a new orientation to use wasted natural materials for different applications and industries such as the automotive, packaging and construction industries.