Acetal Rod is a fantastic engineering plastic that has numerous advantages over other materials and therefore has numerous unique applications that makes acetal one of the most popular engineering plastics

Operating temperatures of Acetal Rod
The operating temperatures for acetal are very good and offer the specifier a very wide. The minimum advised operating temperature for acetal rod is a very respectable -50°C. The higher end of the operating temperature range is just as useful with a maximum continuous service temperature of between plus 100°C and plus 115°C. The maximum short term service temperature for acetal rod is plus 140°C.

Differences between Acetal Copolymer Rod and Delrin Homopolymer Rod
Copolymer acetal rod is an engineering plastic that has the advantage of being more suited to chemical applications and the Delrin Homopolymer grade is an engineering plastic that is more suitable for mechanical applications, being slightly harder, higher mechanical strength, lower thermal expansion and potentially better or improved wear rates. Acetal Copolymer Rod is more economical than the Homopolymer grade, although there is no visual difference between the two grades.

Applications for Acetal Rod
Because acetal rod has excellent chemical resistance and very low moisture absorption, it is often chosen and is a widely specified engineering plastic within the brewing industry. Also because of the very low moisture absorption, acetal rod is highly recommended within the food industry having received Food & Drug Administration approval and also the marine industry for the fact that acetal rod is non hydroscopic the finished machined product will not expand or swell due to moisture absorption.

Machining advantages of acetal rod
Because of its fantastic machining performance, acetal rod is the primary choice of all engineering plastics for the use in automatic CNC machines. Acetal rod has the tendency to chip rather that swarf which eliminates the lathe tools becoming entangled, this means that acetal rod can be machined much faster than other engineering plastics and requires less supervision to reduce any labour costs. Because of its hardness and superb machine ability, acetal rod has another few advantages that are particularly important and they are the excellent surface finish that is outstanding and the fact that there is minimal fash which again reduces the labour costs and improves the overall presentation of the finished product.

Direct Plastics Online offer acetal rod in the complete and full range of sizes from 4mm diameter up to and including 250mm diameter, in both black and natural/white. We do offer acetal rod in a variety of lengths to help assist our customers with a range that best suits their particular engineering plastics needs. Because Direct Plastics Online have the enviable and leading position in the market place for acetal rod and all other engineering plastics, we believe that our independence and flexibility offers our customers an advantage over our competitors.

Direct Plastics Online not only have one of the largest stock range but also offer a rapid despatch system and a free delivery scheme.