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Since venturing into the plastic manufacturing field, I have learned such a variety of things about the subject. Upon looking for where to start, I thought it might be most ideal to research the history of the process. PVC pipe manufacturing continues to grow in new technology, thus producing more products with more efficiency. But, what was this race for improvement like say, 90 years ago? The type of materials that were created then have paved the road for the current state of the industry. Resourceful people and ideas have not relented in providing state of the art supplies for plastic manufacturing companies to work with. First, however, let's discuss the very basics; what is plastic?

To know what plastic is, it's important that you understand what a polymer is, because they are one in the same. Plastic is a polymer, which is a huge molecule composed of repeating structural units. Often times, different compounds are mixed in with plastic in order to reduce costs or to strengthen the plastic. This can be very beneficial to both producer and consumer.

The world plastic actually originates from Greece. The greek word plastikos, meaning able to be shaped or molded. During the manufacturing process, plastic is easily morphed, pressed, or extruded. This then creates the plastic products that we see in our everyday lives, such as exterior panels, plates, tubes, boxes, bottles, etc.

Fortunately, to make things a little easier, there are only two types of plastic. All variations of plastic fall into one of these two categories : thermoplastics and thermosetting polymers. The difference you need to remember with these is that in the case of thermoplastic, there has been a chemical change made, allowing it to be what it is. This is not the case with thermosetting polymers, which makes it unable to be reheated with out exposing it to damage.

Plastics are often classified in a number of ways. For instance, there is differentiating between chemical structures, including acrylics, polyesters, silicones, polyurethanes, and halogenated plastics. It is also very common for plastics to be classified based on quality as well as physical properties (glass transition temperature, density, strength).

You may not know this, but there are quite a few different types of plastics, some may seem familiar to you. After WWI, the pressure was on to create cheap and durable materials in order to mass produce. Thus, two new plastics were created, PVC (or polyvinyl chloride) and polystyrene. These plastics were manufactured by IG Farben from Germany, and they rose quickly in popularity. These plastics, especially PVC, continues to be a huge member of the plastic community (for things such as housing, plumbing, etc.).

Another plastic that will probably sound familiar is nylon, or polyamide. This plastic revolutionized the industry because though it was sturdy, it was extremely flexible. In fact, one of the first products it was ever used on is for bristles in a toothbrush. Nylon gained much public hype throughout it's entire regime in the 1920's, while experiencing a fall in interest during World War II, but picking up right back where it left off when the war ended, making nylon stockings among a number of other products.

Where the industry really took a turn though, was with the first successful making of synthetic rubber. During World War II, it was difficult to get large supplies of natural rubber, and therefore demand for synthetic went up. During the 1940's, production of synthetic rubber increased from 231 to 840,000 tonnes (metric ton). Ever since, it has been essential to both our space exploration and the production of nuclear weapons.