Tech Talk Blog

UHMW Polyethylene is an interesting material in the polymer world.  It’s one of the lowest cost plastics on the market yet it offers some properties that few other polymers do. UHMW is best known for it’s abrasive wear resistance and impact strength but even within this small polymer family there are variations. UHMW stands for ultra high molecular weight and under this description UHMW is produced with a molecular weight range of 3.5 to 6 million. The molecular weight has a fairly dramatic impact on several key properties. For instance, a 4 million molecular weight grade has an abrasion resistance of 100 when measured using a sand slurry test. A 6 million molecular weight is 75 which is a further 25% improvement! Compare this with steel which has a resistance of 160 and you can see why UHMW is the material of choice for abrasive wear environments.

There are several other variations on UHMW including cross linked, glass and moly enhanced and even a high temperature grade.

Check out our Materials Resources Guide to see the entire selection.