Whether it is plastic guttering, fascias or wall cladding, the chances are it will have been made from Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC). A vinyl polymer built from ethenyls with one hydrogen replaced by a chloride group, PVC is used in construction by a good many people because it is inexpensive, hard wearing and simple to make. It has replaced metal as the material to use when making sewerage pipes, for example, since it is impossible for corrosion to occur.
At Bliby Plastics, we supply plastic fascias, soffit, guttering and cladding to the public and to trade. We also have architrave and underground drainage products. PVC is made a lot softer and easier to manipulate when plasticisers are added to it. This process makes it ideal for the manufacturing of a wide range of diverse products, toys, sports equipment, clothing,and PVC cladding. As a material, it is like leather but a lot cheaper.
In the 19th century there were two, possibly more, incidents when PVC was discovered by accident. Both times it manifested itself as a white substance inside jars of vinyl chloride which were lying around and accidentally exposed to sunlight. In the early 1900s two chemists tried to make use of it as a viable commercial material. Unfortunately, it was too difficult to process the rigid polymer and their efforts were unsuccessful. However, in the mid 1920s, a company decided to try plasticising PVC by mixing it with other additives. This resulted in a flexible material that was simpler to process and became a commercial success.
