What Are the Uses for Polyvinyl Alcohol?

Polyvinyl alcohol is an extremely useful polymer typically used as an adhesive that is resistant to grease, oils, and solvents.

It may surprise you how versatile polyvinyl alcohol is! This substance is used widely across several different industries and can probably be useful to you and your business!

That’s why today we are going over the common uses for polyvinyl alcohol according to industry.

Common Uses for Polyvinyl Alcohol

Due to the fact that polyvinyl alcohol has several different grades and uses, we wanted to break it down for you! Keep reading to find out more about how polyvinyl alcohol can be useful to you.

Creating Paper

For the papermaking industry, polyvinyl alcohol is used to make the threads of paper more resistant to grease and oil! It is also a binding agent, re-moistening agent, and much more.

This brings paper manufacturer’s worries to a halt as polyvinyl alcohol is so easy to work with and apply to their current process.

Protecting Food

For the food packaging industry, polyvinyl alcohol is used to coat certain packaging and supplements to ensure that the materials inside aren’t damaged.

In this case, a certain grade of polyvinyl alcohol can be made water-resistant to help keep things fresh and delivered successfully. As a bonus, polyvinyl alcohol is non-poisonous, so it is fully approved by large food organizations.

Making Clothing

Surprisingly, the textile industry uses polyvinyl alcohol for similar purposes to the papermaking industry.

Polyvinyl alcohol is mainly used to increase weavability, but it also gives the thread resistance to water and other substances to keep it from breaking. Polyvinyl alcohol can also replace starch paste completely as it has a more efficient moisture requirement to improve the operating environment of any company.

Baiting Your Hook

Certain grades of polyvinyl alcohol are even water-soluble. This makes it useful in the sportfishing industry! This industry uses polyvinyl alcohol by making bait bags out of it.

They will simply fill the polyvinyl bag with whichever bait they’d like, attach it to a hook, and throw it into the water. The bag will then dissolve from around the bait and function as you’d expect bait would.

Construction and Timber Processing

The timber processing and construction industries are the last two major industries that use this polymer. The timber industry uses a certain grade as a binding agent. When mixed with melamine-formaldehyde resin, polyvinyl alcohol helps thicken the paste as well as shortens curing time.

For the construction industry, it is used to increase cohesion and decrease viscosity for cement and mortar. Other uses are reducing the drying time of cement, attaching wall and ceiling decorations, joint sealing, and wall coating.

With it being waterproof and weather resistant, there are too many uses to list here for construction companies!

How Can You Use Polyvinyl Alcohol?

There are a number of amazing companies out there that are willing to discuss how polyvinyl alcohol can reduce manufacturing time, cost, and even make some hobbies more convenient. We’d encourage you to research this polymer and see for yourself how it can help your business. Whether you’re a construction worker, a fisherman, or someone who makes clothes, polyvinyl alcohol can make it all easier.