Typical plumbing applications that have replaced brass or zinc components are shower heads, ballcocks, faucet cartridges, and various fittings. Consumer items include quality toys, garden sprayers, stereo cassette parts, butane lighter bodies, zippers, and telephone components. Industrial applications of acetal homopolymer include couplings, pump impellers, conveyor plates, gears, sprockets, and springs. The copolymers have an excellent balance of properties and processing characteristics. Also available are electroplatable and dimensionally stable, low-warpage grades.
Acetal copolymers have high tensile and flexural strength, fatigue resistance, and hardness.
Lubricity is excellent. They retain much of their toughness through a broad temperature range and are among the most creep resistant of the crystalline thermoplastics. Moisture absorption is low, permitting molded parts to serve reliably in environments involving humidity changes. A new acetal copolymer resin, Ultraform S 1320X-003, is available from BASF Corporation Plastic Materials. The impact-modified acetal copolymer resins have a good balance of toughness and rigidity, with modulus of elasticity as high as 305,000 psi.