The differences between ABS, PE, PP, and PVC materials

In our daily lives, we constantly encounter a wide variety of materials—some of which we’re familiar with, while others are closely intertwined with our everyday routines yet often go unnoticed. Today, our editor will take you on an in-depth exploration of ABS material—what exactly is it? And how does it differ from materials like PE, PP, and PVC? Let’s find out together!

Development prospects:

ABS is a versatile thermoplastic engineering plastic that was successfully developed in the 1940s. It is a type of plastic with outstanding overall mechanical properties, boasting not only excellent rigidity, hardness, and processing flowability but also high toughness. ABS resin can be processed using injection molding, extrusion, or thermoforming techniques. Currently, most automotive components are manufactured via injection molding. The advantages of ABS resin include superior impact resistance, excellent sound insulation, strong scratch resistance, and enhanced heat resistance. Additionally, its appearance is more aesthetically pleasing than that of PP, making it particularly well-suited for components that require high resistance to lateral impacts and operate under relatively high temperatures. In the automotive industry, ABS resin ranks third in terms of usage volume, trailing only polyurethane and polypropylene. It is widely used in both interior and exterior automotive parts, such as steering wheels, fuel line guides, handles, buttons, and other small components. In terms of exterior automotive applications, ABS resin is employed in components like front radiator grilles and lamp covers.

ABS resin is easy to process and boasts excellent dimensional stability and surface gloss, making it highly suitable for painting and coloring. It can also undergo secondary processing operations such as spray metalizing, electroplating, welding, and bonding, delivering outstanding performance. As a result, ABS resin is widely used in the electronics and electrical industries, covering a wide range of office and consumer electronic products as well as household appliances—including electronic data-processing equipment and office automation devices. Today, in the electronics and electrical market, ABS resin will continue to maintain its crucial role in electronic and electrical products that demand flame retardancy and high heat resistance. Particularly noteworthy is that ABS resin with flame-retardant and high-heat-resistant properties demonstrates clear advantages when competing against ABS/PC and other engineering plastic alloys.

ABS resin has extensive applications in the consumer goods sector, such as pipes, boards, and sheets used in construction materials. However, it is currently being gradually replaced by the cheaper PVC resin. ABS resin is also employed in construction-related industries—for instance, extruded boards are used for bathroom cabinets, swimming pool linings, and other sanitary fixtures, while injection-molded pipes and fittings are made from ABS. In addition, a small quantity of ABS resin is used to manufacture extruded telephone cable wires.

Main uses:

PC/ABS recycled material is an important engineering plastic alloy widely used in fields such as automotive, electrical and electronic equipment, office supplies, and telecommunications devices. Today, to meet the special fire safety requirements of various application areas—particularly in electronic and electrical products—the flame-retardant technology for PC/ABS alloys has become a research hotspot. However, with advances in technology, societal demands for material eco-friendliness are steadily increasing, while the hazards caused by traditional halogen-based flame retardants are becoming increasingly evident.

In the engineering field, ABS is widely used in engineering pipelines, and ABS pipes can be employed in municipal projects with relatively high material requirements.

What is ABS material?

ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer—ABS stands for acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) is a thermoplastic polymer material characterized by high strength, excellent toughness, and ease of processing and molding. It is also known as ABS resin. Currently, ABS resin is the most widely produced and extensively used polymer material. It organically combines the outstanding properties of PS, SAN, and BS, offering a balanced combination of exceptional toughness, hardness, and rigidity. ABS is a ternary polymer formed by the copolymerization of three monomers: acrylonitrile, butadiene, and styrene. In this formula, A represents acrylonitrile, B represents butadiene, and S represents styrene.

ABS resin can be processed using a variety of plastic manufacturing techniques, including injection molding, extrusion, vacuum forming, blow molding, and rotational molding. It can also undergo secondary processing through methods such as mechanical machining, bonding, coating, and vacuum deposition. Thanks to its outstanding comprehensive performance, ABS resin finds wide-ranging applications—primarily as an engineering material, yet it is also well-suited for household appliances. Moreover, ABS resin exhibits excellent resistance to oils, as well as to acids, alkalis, salts, and various chemical reagents. It is easy to electroplate, and after plating, it forms a bright and aesthetically pleasing metallic layer. Additionally, ABS resin boasts advantages such as light weight and low cost, enabling it to partially replace certain metal materials. Notably, ABS resin can also be synthesized into a variety of modified grades—such as self-extinguishing and heat-resistant types—to meet the diverse needs of different application fields.

The differences between ABS, PE, PP, and PVC materials:

ABS: is a plastic synthesized from acrylonitrile, butadiene, and styrene.

The graft copolymer of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene ternary monomers is named after the initials of its English name. This resin boasts high strength, excellent toughness, and outstanding overall performance, making it widely applicable and frequently used as an engineering plastic. In industrial production, a polybutadiene latex or styrene-butadiene rubber with low styrene content is typically employed as the main chain, onto which a mixture of acrylonitrile and styrene is grafted via copolymerization. In practice, graft polymers containing butadiene are often blended with acrylonitrile-styrene copolymer SAN. In recent years, researchers have also adopted a copolymerization approach using both styrene and acrylonitrile monomers, subsequently blending these copolymers in varying proportions with ABS resin graft copolymers to produce a variety of ABS resins suitable for multiple applications. Industrial-scale production in the United States began in the mid-1950s.

Polyethylene

It is a commonly used polymer in everyday life, widely employed in the manufacture of plastic bags, plastic films, and milk containers. Polyethylene exhibits excellent resistance to a variety of organic solvents and can withstand corrosion from many acids and bases; however, it lacks antioxidant capacity when exposed to oxidizing acids such as nitric acid. In an oxidizing environment, polyethylene will still gradually undergo oxidation over time. In film form, polyethylene appears transparent; yet when present in bulk, its opacity arises from the intense scattering of light caused by the large number of internal crystals. The crystallinity of polyethylene is influenced by the number of side chains: the more side chains there are, the more difficult it becomes for the material to crystallize. Moreover, the melting point of polyethylene’s crystals varies with the number of side chains, ranging from 90°C to 130°C—more side chains result in a lower melting point. Typically, single crystals of polyethylene can be prepared by dissolving high-density polyethylene in xylene and then subjecting the solution to conditions above 130°C.

PP: Polypropylene

It is a semi-crystalline thermoplastic. It features high impact resistance, excellent mechanical properties, and outstanding resistance to a wide range of organic solvents as well as acid and alkali corrosion. It is widely used in industrial applications and is one of the commonly encountered polymer materials. Moreover, Australian coins are also made from polypropylene.

PVC: Polyvinyl chloride

This is a polymer material in which hydrogen atoms in polyethylene have been replaced by chlorine atoms. The most prominent feature of PVC is its flame retardancy, which is why it is widely used in fire protection applications. However, during combustion, PVC releases hydrochloric acid and other toxic gases.