3.7 Bending
Bending Poly-wood can be done reasonable well.
There are 3 methods:
1) cold bending:
for bending a large radius
2) heat bending:
for bending a small radius
3) combination notching and heat bending:
for thick Poly-wood sheets (18 mm), or for bending a very
small radius
When heating Poly-wood, see 3.2 'Thermoforming'.
Care must be taken not to overheat and discolor the product.
Extended concentrated heat in an isolated area will result in yel-
lowing and burning.
Once bent, the product must be secured with fasteners. It will
tend to revert to its original shape under normal usage.
In cases of extreme bending, the surface area may stretch and
exhibit a different surface texture/look.
3.8 Fastening with screws
Use standard fasteners to attach Poly-wood to a surface.
Drill pilot holes in materials to be joined, followed by an over-
sized hole in the surface material to allow for expansion and
contraction.
A Ideally, fasteners should be applied from the back side of the
finished part.
B When this is not possible, fasteners can be hidden with a
Poly-wood plug fabricated with a standard wood plug cutter.
The plug must be slightly larger than the hole size for a press
fit.
A
2
4
1
3
1 Poly-wood
2 Subtrate
3 Pilot hole
4 Oversize hole
5 Counter bore
6 Poly-wood plug
Poly-wood
B
6
5
1
4
2
3
4 Finishing
4.1 Finishing
Poly-wood has a textured matte finish on both sides which
require no finishing. All edges finished with the proper router bit
make additional finishing unnecesarry. If needded, edges can
be smoothed with a sanding wheel using 100-150 grit paper. If
a edge should require sanding it can be smoothed out after-
wards by running a torch over the area.
4.2 Surface repair
The Poly-wood surface is tough, but light scratches and mars
can and will happen in a production facility. If you should be
unfortunate enough to have such an occurrence there is little
that can be done to repair it. The only possible exception can
give varying results depending on the skill of the fabricator. The
area can be carefully heated, by using brisk movements with a
heat gun to avoid burning. This will make the product flow
slightly and may hide the damage. Be advised that this kind of
radical repair will more than likely change the surface look of the
area you are attempting to repair and should only be consid-
ered as a last resort option.
4.3 Poly-wood cleaning
Poly-wood can be cleaned with standard household cleaners.
5 Ecological aspects of Poly-wood
5.1 Recyling
Poly-wood waste can be recycled. Provided the different types
are not mixed, they can be reintroduced to the manufacturing
process in granulated form as grist. Experiments have proved
that the mechanical properties of the recycled products are only
slightly different from new goods. In the case of Poly-wood,
increased density gives greater hardness and stiffness. The
degree of impurity from dust, sand or paper is a direct indica-
tion of quality.
5.2 Disposal
Poly-wood material can be dumped or burned with household
rubbish, provided official regulutions are complied with (if sun-
light is excluded, there are hardly any decomposition reac-
tions).
Complete burning produces carbon dioxide and water. Partial
burning also produces carbon monoxide. The toxicity of the
waste gases is determined by the carbon-monoxide content.
ENGLISH
13
11.0705