When we talk about plastic in everyday speech, it is most often thermoplastic we are referring to. Thermoplastic covers virtually all the common and most common plastic parts.

UW-ELAST AB primarily works with a narrow niche of thermoplastic, so-called thermoplastic elastomer. Polyurethane is a kind of thermoplastic elastomer which is of the highest quality.

ORDINARY THERMOPLASTIC IS NOT ELASTIC

The usual thermoplastic is not elastic. It has a so-called elongation at break up to 50%. Elongation at break is a measure that describes how much you can stretch the material before it breaks.

Thermoplastic polyurethane can have an elongation at break of several hundred percent. Our most common polyurethane (TPU) with a hardness of 90 shore A has an elongation at break of as much as close to 500%.

ELASTIC MEMORY

If a traditional thermoplastic is loaded, the deformation remains to some extent after the loading has ceased. If instead a product of polyurethane (TPU) is loaded, there is an elastic memory. After the load ceases, the material returns to its original shape.
Thermoplastics and plastics can thus be very many different things.