Plastic formwork is a product with characteristics of energy-saving and environmentally friendly. It is one of the directions for the development of the construction industry in the future.

Plastic formwork is made of fiber high-strength plastic. When the raw materials are in the molten state, the plastic formwork is single molding shaped with shooting technique. Plastic formwork has advantages of simple craft, lightweight, low cost, and circular use. It has the same mechanical properties as the steel formwork. Plastic formwork has a broad development prospect as it can replace the steel formwork in the construction industry for most purposes.

Below we will make a comparison between plastic formwork and steel formwork as shown below.

1) Strength

Steel’s tensile strength is 375~460N/mm², yield point 220N/mm², tensile elongation rate 20%~26%. While high strength plastic material strength is 181N/mm², lower than the strength of steel. But we can increase the thickness of the plastic formwork to improve its strength and bending resistance.

2) Production process

Steel template starting from the cutting plate blanking has more experience working procedure: shear, bending, qing Angle, punching, cutting, plate making, cutting Angle calibration, paint, welding, etc., to use to the porous or large shearing machine, bending machine, hydraulic punching machine, Angle machine, wheel correction machine, welding machine, and much other equipment and operating personnel, this also is the main reason for the steel formwork is expensive. But plastic formwork can be made individually by one person and one machine, cooled by a single injection molding, and are much simpler to make from the point of view of technology.

3) Cost and price

The steel formwork uses Q235 steel as raw materials, which need to be processed through many processes. Its cost is relatively high. While plastic formwork uses ordinary plastic as raw materials, whose cost is lower than steel formwork. Using plastic formwork can greatly reduce the cost of circulating materials and engineering construction.

4）Thermal expansivity

Due to the nearly same thermal expansion coefficient of steel and concrete, the formwork and the new pouring concrete will be firmly bonded together, making the de-mold work difficult. While the plastic formwork is different, due to its totally different thermal expansion coefficient and concrete, after casting, with the rising temperature and the solidification of concrete, the plastic formwork will automatically from with the casting of concrete, gently remove it without a knock.

Due to the good plasticity of plastics, different shapes and specifications of formwork can be produced by changing the mold form according to different requirements to meet the needs of different parts and different strengths in the building. The damaged formwork can be recycled and remelted into new formwork with good recovery performance.

It can be seen that the formwork made from high strength plastic mixed fiber is feasible in terms of technology, structure performance, and cost price.