PVC, these 3 letters stand for PolyVinyl Chloride, one of the main plastics in use in the world.

Polyvinyl Chloride was discovered in 1835 by the French physician Victor Regnault. The industrial development of PVC began in 1912, however, following the development of a manufacturing process by Fritz Klatte. Large scale industrial production began simultaneously in the USA and Germany in 1938, and the first French PVC production plant entered into service one year later.

PVC is composed of chlorine (obtained by the electrolysis of salt) and ethylene (hydrocarbon composed of carbon and hydrogen, obtained from petrol). The chlorine reacts with the ethylene to give vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) which, through polymerisation (a chemical reaction that joins the molecules to one another), gives PVC. The "raw" resin thus obtained, which comes in a white powder form, cannot be used without certain additives to allow the conversion of the plastic into final products.

Areas of application of PVC

1. Building and public works (58%), pipes and connections, joinery profiles, closing profiles, floor, wall and ceiling coverings, electric cables, etc.
2. Packaging (30%), hollow articles (bottles), films and sheets, plates.
3. Transport, including automotive (6%), bodywork, doors (door trim, handles and armrests), seats (imitation leather trim, seat backs and headrests), passenger compartment (dashboard, steering wheel covers, floors, gear lever bellows and knob, etc.),
4. Consumer goods and miscellaneous (6%), hose pipes, credit cards, boots and shoes, clothing, technical components, office supplies, toys (balls, dolls, etc.), kitchen gloves, medical items (blood bags, flexible tubing, etc.)

Technical Characteristics

Plastics have the particular advantage of providing varied and possibly contradictory properties, such as combining lightness and strength...
This doubtless explains the success of PVC, which can be flexible or rigid, transparent or opaque, coloured or colourless, compact or cellular ...

PVC has many qualities, depending on the application:

• Strong
• Lightweight
• Non-biodegradable
• Low natural flammability (class M1)
• Heat, UV, corrosion-resistant, etc.
• Inert
• Impermeable
• Easy to maintain
• Electrically, acoustically and thermally insulating
• Innocuous (medical or food grade, etc.)
• Surface or through-dyeable

PVC conversion

PVC conversion operations are carried out at between 180 and 200°C (depending on the application) and involve a number of techniques:

• Extrusion - Injection moulding
• Extrusion blow moulding – Coating
• Calendering – Thermoforming
• Dip-coating – Rotational moulding

All of these conversion processes belong to the plastics processing industry