Redwood Plastics and Rubber offers two “pulp safe” plastics and while they might appear to be interchangeable or similar, they’re really not, and have both different properties and applications. In fact, it’s critically important to know where each should be used. SPS-2000 is meant to dissolve in the kraft mill chemical process and should be the only of the two plastics used in kraft mills! This is because Synsteel will not dissolve under the same process! Conversely, SPS-2000 is not suitable for pulp mills that do not use the kraft process. Those mills use metal detectors and that is where Synsteel, with its embedded metal component, must be used instead. The easiest way to think about it is to use SPS-2000 in kraft mills and Synsteel everywhere else. At this point lets break down the materials.
SPS-2000 Polyurethane:
Besides being kraft mill safe, SPS-2000 offers some other excellent properties. It is the slickest polyurethane product we offer with the lowest coefficient of friction. Its fillers also provide high wear and abrasion resistance combined with both load and impact strength. It is able to bear 2500 PSI load in application. SPS-2000 is quite dimensionally stable and resists most oils, greases, and solvents.
Synsteel:
Redco Synsteel has a specific gravity > 2 meaning it will sink (unlike virgin UHMW, which floats). Also, the metal filling makes it attracted to magnets and will trip metal detectors (though that depends on the size of the piece). We’d be happy to mail you a free piece of Synsteel offcut to trial in your mill, cut into various pieces, and see how it detects. The steel filling also provides other benefits such as twice the compressive strength of virgin UHMW, improved abrasion resistance and reduced thermal expansion. All UHMW can take a beating but Redco Synsteel especially with these properties. This makes it an especially good product to use on the log deck (of any mill, not just pulp mills).
For more information or a quotation on Redco Synsteel or SPS-2000, please contact us today.