What is Vinyl

The scientists who developed vinyl in the 1920s had no idea that their invention would come to play a vital role in our everyday lives — helping make products that are safer, easier to use, clearer, cleaner, more durable, more economical and simply better.

 Vinyl is composed of two simple building blocks: chlorine, based on common salt, and ethylene, from natural gas. By employing further chemistry, vinyl can be made flexible, rigid or semi-liquid; clear or colorful; thick or thin – making it the world’s most versatile plastic material.

Use vinyl resin in a rigid state to make PVC pipe and you have a safe, durable material to transport water and safely remove sewage. Use vinyl resin in a flexible format and you can produce blood bags, IV bags and tubing to save lives in hospitals. With its fire resistant nature, use vinyl to produce either jackets, insulation or conduits for electrical wires and cables and you have electrical components that meet or exceed the stringent requirements of standards organizations including the Underwriters’ Laboratories (UL) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).

Vinyl is truly one material with infinite uses. All this versatility helps make vinyl the third-largest volume plastic produced in North America.

This content supported by The Vinyl Institute. More information, please follow www.vinylinfo.org

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