Wednesday, 30 December 2020

Plastic Part Marking – Overview Codes and Standards (incl. miniguide for downloading)

Hello and welcome to a new post. In this blog post we have a closer look at the plastic part marking standards and their differences.

I made a short presentation about this topic which you can watch here:



Why Part Marking Codes?

Identification of plastics products is easier with a part marking system. This allows for better decision making for:

  •        handling plastic products,
  •        better waste recovery
  •        more efficient disposal.

Overview of Marking Standards

There are three main standards; however there are additional ones for each of the polymers.

ISO 11469:2016: Generic identification and marking of plastics products

Example: acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene polymer “>ABS<”

ASTM D7611: Resin Identification Codes (RICs) consisting out of a equilateral triangle, Resin Identification Number, and abbreviated term for polymeric material.

Example:

ISO 1043, ISO 1629 (rubber), ISO 18064 (TPE): Plastics – Symbols and abbreviated terms:

Part 1: Basic polymers and their special characteristics

Part 2: Fillers and reinforcing materials

ISO 1043 - Part 2: Fillers and reinforcing materials (material)


ISO 1043 - Part 2: Fillers and reinforcing materials (form)


Part 3: Plasticizers

ISO 1043 - Part 3: Plasticizers

Part 4: Flame Retardants

The tables below show an overview of the most common flame retardant classes, as well as the detailed codes. We can distinguish between halogen compounds, nitrogen compounds, halogen-free organophosphorus compounds,inorganic phosphorus compounds, metal oxides, Boron and zinc compounds, silicon compounds, and graphite.


ISO 1043- Part 4: overview of the most common flame retardant classes


ISO 1043 - Part 4: Flame retardant codes


Example:


Examples of often found part marking codes on plastic parts

In this blog post I highlight examples of often found part marking codes on plastic parts and their meaning using the standard ISO 1043.

Summary of standards:

 



 Miniguide "Plastic part marking"

Supporting this topic, I  made a miniguide which can be downloaded below. 



Check out my post on flame retardant classifications according DIN EN ISO 1043-4 here.

Thanks for reading and #findoutaboutplastics

Herwig Juster


Interested to talk with me about your polymer material selection, sustainability, and part design needs - here you can contact me 

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Literature:


Literature: 
[1] https://www.iso.org/standard/50590.html

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