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The Production of Vinyl Material

Vinyl was developed in the 1920's, and is now the second largest volume plastic produced in the world. Many, many uses have been found for the vinyl material. In the 20's, soon after it was discovered, one of the many uses was as raincoats. There were many uses for it during World War II, and then during the 50's and 60's, more innovative uses, such as on boots, bags, textiles, fabric coatings, etc. were found.

Like all plastic materials, vinyl results from a series of processing steps that convert hydrocarbon-based raw materials (petroleum, natural gas or coal) into polymers. The vinyl polymer is unusual, however, because it is half made up of ethylene, obtained from natural gas or petroleum, and half of chlorine. The chlorine is derived from brine, which is readily available and cheap, and also is flame retardant.

The versatility of vinyl products is why vinyl is such a large proportion of the plastics market. It is the only plastic that can be made thin and flexible enough for wallcoverings, yet rigid and tough enough for siding on buildings. Depending on the additives and modifiers used, vinyl compound can be used indoors or outside, be crystal clear or opaque, and matched to virtually any colour in the rainbow.