Can my plastic be repaired?

There are two main types of plastic, Thermoplastic and Thermoset plastic.  Thermoplastics can be repaired using heat, pressure and time (fusion welding).   Thermoplastics have melting points and become liquid at a given temperature and when they cool down become solid again.  You can think of Thermoplastic as something like coconut oil or butter which at cold temperature are solids, but when heated become a liquid and then go back to a solid state when cooled down. 

Thermoset plastics remain in a solid state once they are created and cannot be repaired using welding methods,

So the first thing we need to do is figure out what kind of plastic you have. Many items use the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) recycling symbol that was created in 1988.

Within the symbol you will find a number that identifies the type of plastic:

1 – PETE – eg. water bottles, food packaging, and many thermo-formed parts

2 – HDPE – eg. grocery bags, motor oil bottles, Kayaks

3 – PVC – eg. plastic pipes, house trim

4 – LDPE – eg. drip trays, plastic wrap

5 – PP – eg. rope, industrial tanks

6 – PS – eg. foam food trays, packaging

7 – Other

If your item does not have a symbol or other raised/embossed letters there are other methods we can use to determine the type of plastic.  The more information that you can provide such as name of manufacture, model number and pictures can help us to identify your plastic.

We repair most Thermoplastics – eg. Polypropylene, Polyethylene, Nylon, PVC…