What is PVC?

PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, is possibly the most widely used thermoplastic polymer in the world.  It's unique properties make it enormously variable.  At one end of the spectrum, it is now heavily used in construction replacing materials such as wood.

In fact, it was discovered by accident when Henri Victor Regnault left a flask of vinyl chloride exposed to sunlight back in 1872.  What he produced was a hard white substance, but it wasn't until 1926 when Waldo Semon and B.F. Goodrich developed a method to plasticize PVC. What they came up with was a more flexible material and the basis of what we know today.

The beauty of PVC as a "marketing" material is that it can be welded, formed, padded, shaped and moulded to fit just about any scenario.  It is produced in a vast range of colours meaning you are limited, largely, only by your imagination.

It is a chemically stable material which is also water, corrosion and weather resistant.  It has a high strength-to-weight ratio and is a tough electrical and thermal insulator. And most importantly, it maintains these properties over long periods of time.