Using Plastic Pellets
Plastic pellets are tiny, disc-shaped granules. They usually measure about a few millimeters in diameter. Manufactured by companies like PolyVisions, Inc., these plastic pellets are considered to be an industrial raw material. Most of the consumer products made out of plastic are comprised of plastic pellets that are melted down, molded, and then remolded into shape as required.
The thermoplastics that we manufactured here at PolyVisions, Inc. make up the physical composition of these tiny pellets. The material is put through a device called a pellet mill to produce the uniformly-sized units.
Because of their size, thermoplastic pellets are highly versatile and can be used to make plastic products in all sorts of shapes and sizes. One of the best things about the thermoplastic pellets being produced by PolyVisions, Inc. is that they are a very basic raw material. As such, they can be heated or melted down and even tinged with colors.
Some of the most common uses for PolyVision Inc.’s thermoplastic pellets are as follows:
1.) Pellets can be tinged with different kinds of colors. Some of the coloring materials that can be incorporated into a melted vat of pellets include glitter, embossing powders, alcohol-based inks, acrylic paint, and mica powder. You can even mix up different coloring materials in various shades to come up with a custom shade before you apply the mixture to the melted pellets.
2.) The pellets can be embossed. You can pass the pellets through an embossing machine once they are melted down and cooled into a sheet. Once the sheet has cooled, it can be processed as is or additional colors can be applied onto it to highlight certain shapes or curves in the embossed design.
3.) Plastic pellets can be placed into molds to produce special shapes. Molds are ideal if you want the pellets to take on a more delicate pattern or shape, and molds that are made out of flexible material like silicone are recommended for this purpose. If you will be using molds that are made out of stiffer material, you may want to apply a release agent at some point in the molding process.
Typically, pellets are heated on a non-stick mat or in water and then formed into balls. These newly-formed balls are then pressed into a mold and allowed to cool before they are released.
4.) Thermoplastic pellets can be used to create three-dimensional sculptures. Once melted down and cooled, pellets tend to hold their form quite well. This gives modern sculptors a great deal of freedom and leeway to create and build 3D sculptures. The malleable nature of melted pellets also allows modern sculptors to spot heat certain parts of a finished structure so that additional components can be applied and attached.
5.) Structures made out of the pellets can be painted with spray paint or with acrylic paint. Make sure that you are in a well-ventilated area when applying the paint.
6.) Pellets can be recycled. Provided that they aren’t tinged with color or painted, you can melt down and recycle plastic pellets.
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