UHMW polyethylene is a durable, strong, and damage-resistant material that provides a solid choice for manufacturing plastic washers.
This material offers excellent chemical resistance in a wide variety of applications, and also resists damage from water, chemicals containing water, oils, and oil-based fluids without degrading, staining, or otherwise losing its positive characteristics. UHMW washers are always resistant to physical damage from wear, abrasion, and impact because of their hardness and low friction coefficient. Washers made from this material will also reduce noise from shaking or vibrating assemblies.
INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS THAT UTILIZE UHMW WASHERS
Because UHMW has so many positive characteristics, washers made from the material are extremely versatile and can be used in a wide variety of applications. Some of the most common include:
Ultimately, UHMW washers can be designed and produced for virtually any application that needs a washer to be capable of resisting physical and chemical damage.
| Item | Range |
|---|---|
| Length | 20 - 2000 mm |
| Width | 20 - 1000 mm |
| Thickness | 5 - 200 mm |
| Tolerance | +/- 0.2 mm on machined faces |
| Finish | Sawn, planed or ground |
| Fixing | Plain, drilled, counterbored or slotted |
| Property | Value | Test method |
|---|---|---|
| Material | Virgin UHMWPE, 3.5 - 9.0 million g/mol | ASTM D4020 |
| Density | 0.93 - 0.945 g/cm3 | ISO 1183 |
| Tensile strength at yield | 20 - 25 MPa | ISO 527 |
| Elongation at break | > 300 % | ISO 527 |
| Charpy impact, notched | > 100 kJ/m2 | ISO 179 |
| Shore D hardness | 62 - 66 | ISO 868 |
| Coefficient of friction vs steel | 0.10 - 0.22 (dry) | ISO 8295 |
| Service temperature | -169 C to +80 C | - |
| Water absorption | < 0.01 % | ISO 62 |
