Poly Processing Company
Team Innovation
Repair of Rotomolded Polyethylene Parts
Polyethylene has a number of desirable properties that include, but are not limited to,
excellent chemical resistance and inertness. This chemical resistance is due to the lack
of free electrons within the polymer network and the low or negligible polar component of
the carbon-carbon and carbon-hydrogen bonds that comprise the polyethylene structure.
This environment of low electron reactivity causes the polyethylene material to have low
surface energy. This low surface energy will not facilitate proper wetting and spreading of
the adhesive onto the polyethylene surface, thus making polyethylene difficult to patch or
repair. Also, polyethylene is not porous and therefore does not lend itself to mechanical
surface attachment, that is, joining an adhesive to a surface because the adhesive flows
into the cavities on the surface and therefore creates a mechanical attachment. While
properties such as chemical resistance and inertness are highly desirable in applications
like chemical storage and electrical insulation, they present a challenge in applications
where joining, assembly, printing, and repair are required because all of these require a
high surface energy.
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Simple enough, now I'm going to make a sandwich ......
