Thermoforming is a term that describes a process by which a sheet of plastic is heated up to a point where it becomes quite malleable and can be formed into a vast number of products or package shapes. The plastic is warmed up using either radiant heat or convection and then is forced into a mold. Once it is cooled, the excess plastic can be removed and you are left with a finished product.
The term thermoplastic is referred to the type of plastic required for thermoforming. One type of plastic you may also encounter is thermoset plastic but this one is different though. Thermoset plastics can also be melted and molded however you should know that the first time you apply heat to it, its chemistry changes and so it would not be possible to melt it done again and remold into a new form or product.
Thermoplastics on the other hand are truly recyclable plastics making it possible to use and remold many times. It also comes in different types and in order to classify each type, a special resin identification code is used. You have probably seen these codes before - the number surrounded by a triangle of arrows. Many materials come with these codes like paper products, plastics, glass products and metal products too. Because of these codes recycling centers find it easier to sort and separate items.
Thermoformed packages and products which are made of polyethylene terephthalate is perhaps the most commonly found items and they carry the resin identification code 1. Plastic water bottles and soda bottles are among these items. In the country several recycling centers accept these items being turned over and a deposit refund may even be guaranteed to you if you turn them to a specified type of recycling center in some states.
Of course several more terms are being linked to thermoplastic juts like "polyvinyl chloride" or PVC. PVC is definitely the most widely used of the thermoplastics. Other common types of thermoplastic are nylon, acrylic and Styrofoam. Now these are the plastics which are polymers - a molecule made up of chains of monomers which are large. Monomers are those molecules capable of being chemically bound together. There are polymers which are naturally occurring but then some of them are created by chemists which make them synthetic.
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