1. MACHINING METHOD

ECOCELL can be easily and quickly worked with normal carpentry tools. It can be cut, saw, turned, filed, drilled, planed, milled, screwed and polished.

The tools must be sharp in order to prevent breaking and splitting. One generally works at high cutting speed, low forward feed and low rate of cut. Normally, it is not necessary to cool the cutting tools. In special case compressed air is sufficient.

1. Sawing: ECOCELL can be cut with hand, circular or jigsaws and wood cutting saws.
   
   High speed band and circular saws with a cutting speed upto 3000m/min should be used. Sawing blades with a tooth pitch of 5 to 10mm should be used, owing to thickness of the sheet.
   
   For circular saws different tooth geometry as flat tooth, trapezoidal tooth & rigid metal should be used. Depending on the machines, its speed and material to be machined, different saw blades diameter and tooth no must be used.
   
   To obtain clean cutting edges and to avoid edge cracking the sheets should be fastened so that it is not exposed to vibration. This is especially important for small sheet thickness of 1-3 mm both in case of single sheet and in case of compound.
   
   For compass saws, only sharpened (unset) saw blades (Plastic PVC) should be used. The feed (manual) should be at slow, continuo speed. In particular cases it may be advisable to make use of the consulting service offered by the saw blade manufacturer.
   

2. Drilling: The usual spiral metal bits with grooves titled to the center of the drill can be used for drilling ECOCELL. The back slope angle should not be smaller than 12-16. While the center angle may be upto 110.
   
   The speed for cutting and feeding depends on the depth of bores, the thicker the sheet, the lower the speed.
   
   For Holes larger than 20mm in diameter, double cutters with guide are used. Holes larger than 40mm in diameter are cut on circular cutter.
   

3. Cutting, Punching, perforating: Sheets upto 3mm thickness can be cut with blade or Stanley knife or sheet shears. Cutting should not be interrupted. Sheets with higher thickness should be cut with hand or power saw. Further, sheets upto 3mm can be punched or perforated with profiling knives.
   
   By optimization the sharpness of cutting tools, speed according to type and thickness of sheet, the best results are obtained. It is therefore recommended to evaluate the cutting speed with respect to cutting surface quality.
   
   Alternate Cutting Method:
   
   Water Jet Cutting: For sheets with lower thickness water jet cutting is also suitable especially when the degree of complexity of contours is high. Upto a sheet thickness of 3mm, cutting can be effected using a pure water jet. However, for thickness exceeding 4mm an abrasive agent (e.g. Silica sand) should be added to the cutting water. The cutting speed should be varied according to different materials.
   

4. Turning: During turning the high rate of cut should be accompanied with low forward feed to prevent the material from breaking. The point of the turning tool should be rounded at a radius of at least 0.5mm to keep the surface free from striation. Precession turning restricts the depth of cuts to a maximum of 2mm.
   

5. Milling: The milling tool should be grounded to make them suitable for ECOCELL. They should be designed to give room to proper volume or chips. Working at high forward feed along with moderate cutting speed and deep cuts will lead to good results.

II. JOINING TECHNIQUES

1. Bonding: ECOCELL can be bonded to each other and other materials. The surface must be clean and free from any lubricants. Depending on the requirements and applications various types of adhesives can be used. When bonding ECOCELL sheets to each other, adhesive containing solvent and solvent free polyurethane adhesive are suitable. An adhesive with a neoprene base give good results. For most of the sheets, for less demanding, stress free application double sided self-adhesive construction type tapes can be used.
   

2. Welding : ECOCELL can be welded by means of the usual welding procedures such as hot gas welding, heated tool welding, bending and welding, friction welding etc. using the commonly know equipment. The sheets should be properly cleaned with a cleaning agent in the welding area or rather by machining before welding.
   

   1. Hot Gas welding: When hot gas welding with a welding tip, the sheets material and the welding rod are plasticied at the weld by means of heated gas, preferably oil and water free compressed air. Local overheating must be avoided.
      

   2. Heat Tool Welding (Butt welding): The parts to be welded are cleaned and smoothed and then heated by slightly pressing them against the heated tool till they are plasticied. Then they are pressed together. The proper welding conditions (as temperature, pressure etc) should be adhered to for best results.
      

   3. Bending & Welding: For bending & welding, the heated tool along with the bending line intrudes into the melting material The bar should be inter upto two third of its thickness, then the sheet is bent & welded along the plasticied line. For bending thick sheets heating time can be reduced by milling the wedge shaped groove.
      

3. Nailing & Screwing : ECOCELL can be nailed easily. It is advisable to nail ECOCELL a few mm from the edge to avoid splitting. It can be drilled like wood. While bolting, larger size washer should be used to spread the load.
   
   ECOCELL can also be riveted to metal bases. Blind rivets with aluminum stems are highly suitable for attaching ECOCELL to metal.
   

4. Forming: ECOCELL sheets can be easily formed, bent and folded. So it is possible to cut sheets to their final dimensions.
   
   The usual procedure are bending/folding using heat, thermal converting method, vacuum forming, blow forming, deep drawing, stretching and pressure forming. ECOCELL can be easily bent or canted off at the corners or edges using local heating.
   
   For these forming processing adequate equipments are necessary. The bending must not be smaller that two to three times the thickness of the sheet. The heated zone should have a width of at least five times the thickness of the sheet.

III. SURFACE FINISH

1. Printing & Coating: With the smooth surface, ECOCELL can easily be printed, painted and coated. For apply, lettering and decorative motifs silk screen printing is ideal. All printing inks meant for Rigid PVC can be suitable used for ECOCELL. Surface to be printed should be clean and free of grease. The spray method of printing can be well applied except on screen printing. Sheets which are exposed to direct solar radiation should not be painted dark over large areas in order to avoid high temperature absorption.
   

2. Covering : ECOCELL can be easily covered with

   • Hard or soft PVC films

   • Textiles

   • Paper

   • Sheet material

   • Photographs.

   The polyurethane stickers, self-adhesives product, contact adhesive, films applied with the help of heat and double sided adhesive films.
   
   The surface of ECOCELL sheet should be cleaned for better results.
   

3. Lamination: Strong, bend-resistant composites can be obtained by laminating ECOCELL with fiberglass-reinforced polyester.
   

4. Flocking to give ECOCELL a decorative finish, electrostatic flocking is an impressive way using standard process.
   

5. Stamping: Impression of letters, ciphers etc are stamped with tools used in the sheet metal printing, cardboard and leather industry. The stamping process does not require heated material but heated tools.

IV. SOUND & THERMAL INSULATION

ECOCELL sheets performs well with regard to sound and thermal insulation and is therefore useful for exhibitions stand, construction, interior architecture, room cladding ventilation and air conditioning. Hollow profiles sheets with double wall construction are very effective for sound and thermal insulation purposes. The high sound and thermal insulation properties of ECOCELL are due to mall law.

CHEMICAL RESISTANCE

ECOCELL is resistant against dilute acids and alkalis, salt solution, aliphatic and oils. It will swell or dissolve by aromatics, chlorinated hydrocarbons, ethers, esters and ketons. 

The chemical attacks depend on the time, the temperature, the pressure and the concentration of the agent as well as mechanical and other influences.

The following list gives a first indication of the resistance of ECOCELL

 

Agent	Concentration	Temperature
		20ºC	60ºC
Inorganic Chemical
Ammonia	24	A	D
Aqua regia		A	B
Chromate sulfuric acid		A	C
Hydrochloric acid	35	A	A
Nitric acid	10	A	A
Phosphoric acid	85	A	A
Potassium iye	40	A	A
Soda iye	40	A	A
Sodium Chloride	10	A	A
Sodium hydrosulphite	10	A	A
Sodium hypochlorite	10	A	A
Sulfuric acid	96	A	A
Organic Chemicals
Acetic acid	50	A	A
Aniline		D	D
Butane	100	A	B
Benzene		D	D
Butonol		A	A
Cyclo-hexane		A	B
Cyclo-hexanol		A	A
Decaline		A	A
Diesel fuel		A	D
Diethylether		D	D
Ethnol		A	B
Formic Acid	100	A	B
Formaline		A	B
Fuel Oil		A	Not tested
Glacial acetic acid		A	D
Gylcol		A	A
Heptane		A	D
Hexane		A	A
M-Cresol		B	D
Machine oil		A	A
Methanol		A	B
Petrolether		A	B
Petrol-Benzene
Mixture (BV-Aral)		D	D
Turpentine Oil		A	C
Toluene		D	D
Transformer oil		A	A
White spirit		A	C
Xylene		D	D

Key to symbols :

TECHNICAL VALUE

Thermal Properties

Thermal conductivity

Electrical properties

Other properties

STORAGE NOTE :

Always store ECOCELL sheets on a dry and even surface in rooms temperature be 15-20 degree C.

The sheets inside the packing must not be exposed to weathering and solar radiation.

PAINT PROCESSING

In various applications it is very often desirable to us colored ECOCELL Sheet. Colours are easy to change by applying one of the commercially available brands of paints. Applied to ECOCELL they adhere well, being flexible and resistant to abrasion and climatic influence. Depending on the type of paint selected and the method of application, gloss or stain surface can be achieved and metallic tones and structure effects are also possible.

Recommended types of paint.

The following types are the most suitable kinds painting ECOCELL.

• PVC

• Acrylic

• Two component polyurethane compound.

How to clean ECOCELL

In general, dirt and stains can be removed from ECOCELL without any difficulty. One exception to this, however is marked caused by solvent.

Soapy water or plain water can be used for dust and water-soluble dirt can be prevented to a major degree.

To remove other stains e.g. pencil lead, felt pen marks, rubber erasure marks, oil or grease, a non-aggressive organic solvent or solvent mixture is suitable.

One reservation must, however, be made concerning stains caused by aggressive solvents, for example, writing with certain felt pens cannot be fully removed after a while.

Processing

Since the paints are supplied in concentrated form, they should be thinned before use according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Paints can be applied with a brush or roller. In general, however this is done using normal spraying equipment. A spray pressure of 3 to 4 bars (45 - 60 psi) is normally used with a nozzle aperture of 1.5 - 2mm Dia.

Many paints can be applied to the sheets directly. Others however require a coat of primer. In all cases, the paint manufacturer's instructions must be observed.

Drying

ECOCELL is a thermoplastic material and therefore cannot be dried in an oven consequently only so-called air drying paints can be used. After application surface are usually dusty-dry in 30 minutes at room temperature and complete hardening is archived after approx 24 hours.

Advice to use

Experience has shown that, in certain cases, the application of paint will result in sheets being less resistant to impact. This is particularly true of paints containing either aggressive solvents or ones, which become very brittle on hardening. In order to select the appropriate type of paint and the best possible processing conditions, the paint should be consulted prior to using paint for the first time.