Fabrication - UHMW Polyethlylene Sheet

dzzz

Is this a good alternative to nylon for a bushing like material? It's for padding between bolted metal to metal contact that might slip a little. I've used nylon before, but this is on a vehicle frame where it will get wet occasionally.
 

lamontagne

Adventurer
What kind of pressures (ie..weight) will the pad see? UHMW will not sustain a high pressure for long with out cracking.

What kind of application?
 

off-roader

Expedition Leader
UHMW is frequently used for body lift pucks if that helps you decide. How much force will you be applying and how big a block? If it's thin it may crack depending on the forces involved.
 

dzzz

Spring loaded u-bold attaching camper to subframe. Stainless steel plates to wood, and ss plate to frame might both benefit from a material inbetween that provided a little padding.
 

TeriAnn

Explorer
Is this a good alternative to nylon for a bushing like material? It's for padding between bolted metal to metal contact that might slip a little. I've used nylon before, but this is on a vehicle frame where it will get wet occasionally.

I have UHMW (ultra-high molecular weight) Polyethylene plastic strips between the leaves of my truck's springs where they reduce leaf to leaf friction as the leaves slide against each other. Mine have been in place since 1999 and are still there doing their duty through wherever I've driven and waded my truck.

After slightly over 11 years the parts that are sticking out the ends are brittle and have lost their flexibility. But the part between the springs are still there doing what I wanted them to do and are likely to remain so for some time yet.

I suspect the plastic in my truck is being stressed harder than the application that you are thinking of.
 

01tundra

Explorer
The UHMW skid plates that I run under my sliders have held up to three years of absolute abuse while being slammed repeatedly into rocks with 6,800 lbs of truck on top of them and have never failed.


UHMW.jpg
 

llamalander

Well-known member
McMaster Carr has some great info on various plastic properties; flexibility, hardness, impact resistance, tensile strength etc.
Start with Plastics under the Raw Materials heading
Once you start choosing materials, the properties can be seen or searched for in the tab on the left-
Clicking the About tab up top once a material is selected will give a breakdown of some of the different attributes,
 

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