Sector Focus Polymers: The Goodfellow Performance Pyramid

It is highly likely that we have all heard of polymers, but what do we actually know about them? To start with, polymers are described as materials made up of long, repeating chains of large molecules, or macromolecules, but this is just the beginning. The number of available polymers is huge and the applications for these products can be many and varied, with materials being suitable for specific operations such as operating temperature range, wear resistance and environmental degradation.

Goodfellow offers an extensive range of polymers, and to help our customers identify possible suitable materials for a given application, we have plotted all of the polymer products we supply on the Goodfellow Performance Pyramid according to their physical properties, operating temperature range and cost.

This quick graphic guide aims to show relative performance across a range of different types of polymer products which have been organized into three tiers. The bottom tier includes commodity materials, engineering materials are in the middle tier and high-performance materials are in the top tier. Therefore, if the requirements involve a relatively low-cost solution, then the starting point to indicate the most suitable polymer for the application would be at the bottom of the pyramid. Likewise, if the performance of the polymer is more important, the starting point would be at the top. To make our performance pyramid even more informative, two additional categories regarding the polymers’ crystallinity are demonstrated; one face shows which products are semi-crystalline and the other shows the amorphous products. 

The following table summarises Goodfellow’s range of thermoset and thermoplastic polymers which will also assist in the identification of a suitable, application-driven polymer. 

Thermoplastics

Thermosets

For more information about the polymers we have available, please contact the Goodfellow team.