Polyvinyl chloride in the context of "Polymer"

Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, shelters, as a support for oil painting and for other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags, electronic device cases, and shoes. It is popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame.

Although historically made from hemp, modern canvas is usually made of cotton, linen, or sometimes polyvinyl chloride (PVC). It differs from other heavy cotton fabrics, such as denim, in being plain weave rather than twill weave. Canvas comes in two basic types: plain and duck. The threads in duck canvas are more tightly woven. The term duck comes from the Dutch word for cloth, doek. In the United States, canvas is classified in two ways: by weight (ounces per square yard) and by a graded number system. The numbers run in reverse of the weight so a number 10 canvas is lighter than number 4.

An eraser (also known as a rubber in some Commonwealth countries, including South Africa from which the material first used got its name) is an article of stationery that is used for removing marks from paper or skin (e.g. parchment or vellum). Erasers have a rubbery consistency and come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. Some pencils have an eraser on one end. Less expensive erasers are made from synthetic rubber and synthetic soy-based gum, but more expensive or specialized erasers are made from vinyl, plastic, or gum-like materials.

At first, erasers were invented to erase mistakes made with a pencil; later, more abrasive ink erasers were introduced. The term is also used for things that remove marks from chalkboards and whiteboards.

Some familiar household synthetic polymers include: Nylons in textiles and fabrics, Teflon in non-stick pans, Bakelite for electrical switches, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in pipes, etc. The common PET bottles are made of a synthetic polymer, polyethylene terephthalate. The plastic kits and covers are mostly made of synthetic polymers like polythene, and tires are manufactured from polybutadienes. However, due to the environmental issues created by these synthetic polymers which are mostly non-biodegradable and often synthesized from petroleum, alternatives like bioplastics are also being considered. They are however expensive when compared to the synthetic polymers.

A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near the outside edge and ends near the center of the disc. The stored sound information is made audible by playing the record on a phonograph (or "gramophone", "turntable", or "record player").

Records have been produced in different formats with playing times ranging from a few minutes to around 30 minutes per side. For about half a century, the discs were commonly made from shellac and these records typically ran at a rotational speed of 78 rpm, giving it the nickname "78s" ("seventy-eights"). After the 1940s, "vinyl" records made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) became standard replacing the old 78s and remain so to this day; they have since been produced in various sizes and speeds, most commonly 7-inch discs played at 45 rpm (typically for singles, also called 45s ("forty-fives")), and 12-inch discs played at 33⅓ rpm (known as an LP, "long-playing records", typically for full-length albums) – the latter being the most prevalent format today.

A furnace (American English), referred to as a heater or boiler in British English, is an appliance used to generate heat for all or part of a building. Furnaces are mostly used as a major component of a central heating system. Furnaces are permanently installed to provide heat to an interior space through intermediary fluid movement, which may be air, steam, or hot water. Heating appliances that use steam or hot water as the fluid are normally referred to as a residential steam boilers or residential hot water boilers. The most common fuel source for modern furnaces in North America and much of Europe is natural gas; other common fuel sources include LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), fuel oil, wood and in rare cases coal. In some areas electrical resistance heating is used, especially where the cost of electricity is low or the primary purpose is for air conditioning. Modern high-efficiency furnaces can be up to 98% efficient and operate without a chimney, with a typical gas furnace being about 80% efficient. Waste gas and heat are mechanically ventilated through either metal flue pipes or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes that can be vented through the side or roof of the structure. Fuel efficiency in a gas furnace is measured in AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency).

A soffit is an exterior architectural feature, generally the horizontal, aloft underside of the roof edge. Its archetypal form, sometimes incorporating or implying the projection of rafters or trusses over the exterior of supporting walls, is the underside of eaves (to connect a supporting wall to projecting edge(s) of the roof). The vertical band at the edge of the roof is called a fascia. A soffit of an arch is frequently called an intrados.

Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word also refers to the materials used to upholster something.

Upholstery comes from the Middle English word upholder, which referred to an artisan who makes fabric furnishings. The term is equally applicable to domestic, automobile, airplane and boat furniture, and can be applied to mattresses, particularly the upper layers, though these often differ significantly in design. A person who works with upholstery is called an upholsterer. An apprentice upholsterer is sometimes called an outsider or trimmer. Traditional upholstery uses materials like coil springs (post-1850), animal hair (horse, hog and cow), coir, straw and hay, hessians, linen scrims, wadding, etc., and is done by hand, building each layer up. In contrast, today's upholsterers employ synthetic materials like dacron and vinyl, serpentine springs, and so on.

Waterproof fabrics are fabrics that are, inherently, or have been treated to become, resistant to penetration by water and wetting. The term "waterproof" refers to conformance to a governing specification and specific conditions of a laboratory test method. They are usually natural or synthetic fabrics that are laminated or coated with a waterproofing material such as wax, rubber, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyurethane (PU), silicone elastomer, or fluoropolymers. Treatment could be either of the fabric during manufacture or of completed products after manufacture, for instance by a waterproofing spray. Examples include the rubberized fabric used in Mackintosh jackets, sauna suits, and inflatable boats.

Linoleum is a floor covering made from materials such as solidified linseed oil (linoxyn), pine resin, ground cork dust, sawdust, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most commonly on a hessian or canvas backing. Pigments are often added to the materials to create the desired color finish. Due to the pigment being mixed directly into the linoleum cement, the finished color of the tile remains visible even after years of wear. In the past some of these pigments were iron oxide, red lead or lithopone.

It gained popularity as a beautiful and easy to clean flooring option in the late 19th century and is still used today. Commercially, the material has been largely replaced by sheet vinyl flooring, a plastic alternative made of polyvinyl-chloride, though many still call it linoleum. This is mainly due to the fact that its plastic counterpart is less costly and much faster to produce.

In industrial chemistry, a stabilizer or stabiliser is a chemical that is used to prevent degradation. Above all, heat and light stabilizers are added to plastic and rubber materials because they ensure safe processing and protect products against aging and weathering. In particular polyvinyl chloride would not be possible without stabilizers (PVC is one of the most important plastics and used for pipes, window frames and many other products).

In economic terms the most important product groups on the market for stabilizers are compounds based on calcium (calcium-zinc and organo-calcium), lead, and tin stabilizers as well as liquid and light stabilizers (HALS, benzophenone, benzotriazole). Cadmium-based stabilizers largely vanished in the last years due to health and environmental concerns. In 2023, almost half of all polymer stabilizers sold worldwide were based on calcium.

Shellac (/ʃəˈlæk/) is a resin secreted by the female lac bug on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. Chemically, it is mainly composed of aleuritic acid, jalaric acid, shellolic acid, and other natural waxes. It is processed and sold as dry flakes and dissolved in alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and wood finish. Shellac functions as a tough natural primer, sanding sealant, tannin-blocker, odor-blocker, stain, and high-gloss varnish. Shellac was once used in electrical applications as it is a good insulator and seals out moisture. Phonograph and 78 rpm gramophone records were made of shellac until it was replaced by vinyl.

From the time shellac replaced oil and wax finishes in the 19th century, it was one of the dominant wood finishes in the western world until it was largely replaced by nitrocellulose lacquer in the 1920s and 1930s. Besides wood finishing, shellac is used as an ingredient in food, medication and candy as confectioner's glaze, and to preserve harvested citrus fruit.

A plastisol is a colloidal dispersion of small polymer particles, usually polyvinyl chloride (PVC), in a liquid plasticizer. When heated to around 180 °C (356 °F), the plastic particles absorb the plasticizer, causing them to swell and fuse together forming a viscous gel. Once this is cooled to below 60 °C (140 °F) it becomes a flexible, permanently plasticized solid product. This process is called 'curing'.

Commercial plastisols have good compatibility with pigments and dyes allowing for brightly coloured finished products. Before being cured they flow as a liquid, and can easily be poured into a mould, used for dip-coatings or as a textile ink for screen-printing. Once cured it has a flexible, rubbery consistency. They are commonly used for coatings, particularly in outdoor applications (roofs, furniture) or grips for tools. Mattel Toys used plastisols for years in creating such things as Barbie and Chatty Cathy toys in the 1960s and 1970s.

A plasticizer (UK: plasticiser) is a substance that is added to a material to make it softer and more flexible, to increase its plasticity, to decrease its viscosity, and/or to decrease friction during its handling in manufacture.

Plasticizers are commonly added to polymers and plastics such as PVC, either to facilitate the handling of the raw material during fabrication, or to meet the demands of the end product's application. Plasticizers are especially key to the usability of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the third most widely used plastic. In the absence of plasticizers, PVC is hard and brittle; with plasticizers, it is suitable for products such as vinyl siding, roofing, vinyl flooring, rain gutters, plumbing, and electric wire insulation/coating.

A plotter is a machine that produces vector graphics drawings. Plotters draw lines on paper using a pen, or in some applications, use a knife to cut a material like vinyl or leather. In the latter case, they are sometimes known as a cutting plotter.

In the past, plotters were used in applications such as computer-aided design, as they were able to produce line drawings much faster and of a higher quality than contemporary conventional printers. Smaller desktop plotters were often used for business graphics. Printers with graphics capabilities took away some of the market by the early 1980s, and the introduction of laser printers in the mid-1980s largely eliminated the use of plotters from most roles.

In organic chemistry, a vinyl group (abbr. Vi; IUPAC name: ethenyl group) is a functional group with the formula −CH=CH₂. It is the ethylene (IUPAC name: ethene) molecule (H₂C=CH₂) with one fewer hydrogen atom. The name is also used for any compound containing that group, namely R−CH=CH₂ where R is any other group of atoms.

An industrially important example is vinyl chloride, precursor to PVC, a plastic commonly known as vinyl.

Engineering plastics are a group of plastic materials that have better mechanical or thermal properties than the more widely used commodity plastics (such as polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene and polyethylene).

Engineering plastics are more expensive than standard plastics, therefore they are produced in lower quantities and tend to be used for smaller objects or low-volume applications (such as mechanical parts), rather than for bulk and high-volume ends (like containers and packaging). Engineering plastics have a higher heat resistance than standard plastics and are continuously usable at temperatures up to about 150 °C (300 °F).

Confetti is small pieces or streamers of paper, mylar or metallic material, usually thrown at celebrations, especially parades and weddings. The origins are from the Latin confectum, with confetti the plural of Italian confetto, small sweet. Modern paper confetti trace back to symbolic rituals of tossing grains and sweets during special occasions, traditional for numerous cultures throughout history as an ancient custom dating back to pagan times, but adapted from sweets and grains to paper through the centuries.

Confetti is manufactured in multiple colors, shapes and materials. A distinction is made between confetti and glitter; glitter is smaller than confetti (pieces usually no larger than 1 mm) and is universally shiny. Most table confetti is also shiny. While they are called metallic confetti they are actually metallized PVC. Most party supply stores carry paper and metallic confetti. Confetti is commonly used at social gatherings such as parties, weddings, and Bar Mitzvahs. The simplest confetti is simply shredded paper (see ticker-tape parade), and can be made with scissors or a paper shredder. Chads punched out of scrap paper are also common. A hole punch makes small round chads, and a ticket punch makes more elaborate chads. Most pieces of paper flats will flutter as tumblewings giving long flight times.