As plastics are almost indestructible, easy to clean, and can be used for many years, they are very good materials for toys. Although there are many types of plastic in the world, just some of them are used to produce most of plastic toys, including ABS、PVC、PP、PC、PE、EVA、PU. Here we show you what toys can be produced with these materials.
1. ABS
Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) (chemical formula (C8H8)x·(C4H6)y·(C3H3N)z) is a common thermoplastic polymer.
ABS is the main material for inserting building blocks, it has good dimensional stability, and the basic particles made by ABS can maintain the same height. At the same time, ABS has high hardness and toughness, even at low temperatures, it will not become brittle (low temperature resistance-40 °).
Besides, as it is resistant to fall and wear, ABS is used to produce some models (such as Gundam, Transformers, plastic dolls, etc.), automobiles (inertial pull-back cars, electric vehicles, riding strollers), and crawling plastic toys.
2. PVC
PVC plastic can be divided into soft PVC plastic and rigid PVC plastic, it is the main material for the production of plastic toys. Most inflatable toys are made of soft PVC plastic, such as jump ball, beach ball, gym ball, inflatable horse.
Besides, soft PVC plastic is also used to produce kids’ animal models, like dinosaurs of Sile and Papo.
Rigid PVC plastic can be used to produce sewer pipes, it is not common to use hard PVC plastic to make toys.
Note: Toys made of PVC cannot be disinfected with boiling water. You can clean it with toy cleaner, or just wipe with a cloth dipped in soapy water.
3. PP
PP can be put in a microwave oven, and it is often used as a container to hold food, oil, condiments, etc., such as lunch boxes and fresh-keeping boxes. After PC baby bottles were banned for sale a few years ago, PP became the main material for plastic baby bottles.
In toys, PP materials are mainly used in small toys such as teethers and rattles. It can be put in the mouth and support high-temperature disinfection.
4. PC
PC plastic is commonly used to produce baby bottles before 2011, now it has been banned because of containing BPA. The European Union believes that BPA can induce precocious puberty, cause endocrine disorders, and threaten the health of fetuses and children, so it is banned.
However, PC toys still can be found in the market, they are often very cheap but dangerous for our kids, so it is not recommended to buy.
5. PE
Soft PE is mainly used for film products, such as food cling film and plastic bags. Rigid PE is suitable for one-shot injection molding products and hollow products.
The most typical PE toy is rocking horses and slides, these large toys need to be formed at one time, and hollow in the middle.
For the safety of babies, you’d better choose the large toys that are molded at one time as much as possible, and the assembled ones are relatively prone to accidents. Besides, the mainstream baby crawling mats (floor mats) are basically made of PE or EVA.
6. EVA
EVA has good water resistance. In addition to floor mats, EVA is mainly used to make foam wheels for strollers, as well as some softer masks and water injection teether.
7. PU
Our common baby strollers include baby strollers, scooters, balance bikes, and bicycles. PU is another main material to foam wheel of baby strollers Besides, the Manhattan gutta-percha ball has a small tube made of PU.
Therefore, the Manhattan ball cannot be sterilized by high temperature, it can only be slightly cleaned with warm water.
8. TPR and Silicone
TPR is also called TPE, it is often used to produce toy balls，such as Crystal pinball, hole ball, Opo ball. Besides, TPR can be also used to produce gutta-percha, but it can’t be disinfected with boiling water
Silicone material can only be used on small toys, it is more expensive than TPR and other plastic materials. The Silicone is high-temperature resistance (-40° to 230°), and it can be boiled in boiling water, dishwashers, and microwave ovens.
Silicone does not produce any toxic and harmful substances from the raw material to the finished product. So it has gradually become the main material of gutta-percha in recent years.
However, many sellers claim that their gutta-percha is made of medical silicone, they are actually made of TPR. Silicone gutta-percha can be sterilized in various ways, but TPR cannot be sterilized by high temperature. These two types of gutta-percha have big differences in quality and price, we should pay attention to distinguish them.
9. Conclusion
Different plastics are used to produce different toys for Children, after reading this article, Bestofuns hopes that you have known which type of material is most suitable for making a toy for your baby.
