| Abstract: | Flexible PVC compounds produced by the Plastics Division of Teknor Apex are used in most major end-use markets. Our materials are molded and extruded for applications in wire and cable, automotive, medical, building and construction, appliances, toys, food packaging, housewares, power tools, recreational products, and many other industries. This involvement with diverse markets gives us a wideranging perspective on attitudes towards flexible PVC among people involved in product design, material specification, purchasing, sales and marketing, processing, and other important functions at corporations large and small. “The Dilemma of Flexible PVC” reflects what we see, from our conversations and business dealings with these customers, as a critical crossroads for the material. On the one hand, we see many new opportunities for greater market penetration by flexible PVC because of dynamic new product development in the industry and continuing cost/performance advantages compared to other thermoplastics. On the other hand, we are hearing escalating concerns from the marketplace about the environmental friendliness and safety of flexible PVC that may threaten these opportunities. These negative attitudes toward PVC are certainly not new, but we are hearing them with increasingly greater frequency. They are coming from design engineers and other material specifiers developing new applications, and from people involved in long-standing flexible PVC applications. |
