Poly(vinylchloride) (PVC) is one of the lowest cost, highest volume commodity plastics used today due to its versatility, chemical and mechanical properties, ability to accept a wide variety of additives.
Rigid PVC is appreciated for its stiffness at room temperature, low price, chemical resistance except to certain solvents, dimensional stability, easy welding and joining, resistance to weathering for well optimised compounds, possibility of transparency, food contact, fireproofing.
Flexible PVC is appreciated for the versatility of its characteristics according to the formulations using significant quantities of fillers and plasticizers to optimize some of the characteristics such as behaviour at low temperatures, fire resistance, flexibility and hardness meeting the range of elastomers, low price, electric insulation, easy welding and joining, possibility of transparency, food contact, fireproofing.
Unfortunately, PVC is unstable at process temperatures and may degrade rapidly if no thermal stabilizer is added.