Vinyl flooring

A flexible PVC-based sheet forms part of a resilient floor covering.

Vinyl flooring, illustrative image

Material

PVC-based flooring layer: PVC

Material selection rationale

Flexible formulation
Plasticised PVC can bend into a roll.
Formable sheet
A continuous layer can carry colour and a surface finish.
Layered performance
The visible finish, wear surface and backing can have different roles; the presence of PVC does not describe the complete floor construction.

How it becomes a product

  1. Compound and form sheet: PVC is mixed with selected plasticisers, fillers and pigments, then formed into sheet, for example by calendering.
  2. Build the covering: The sheet is combined with the chosen backing and surface layers, finished and cut. The selected PVC-based construction is combined with its surface and backing layers before cutting into rolls or units.

Preparation routes

Vinyl chloride route

Free-radical addition polymerisation. Vinyl chloride molecules link into PVC chains. The resin is then formulated differently for rigid pipes and flexible coverings. The original double bond is consumed, while the C–Cl bonds remain in the repeat unit. Flexible and rigid PVC can therefore have the same polymer origin.

An initiator starts chain growth. Stabilising additives and, for flexible formulations, plasticisers are separate from the monomer. Plasticiser acts mainly by altering chain mobility; it is not a second polymerising feedstock.

  1. PVC: monomer production, polymerisation and usesChemical Industry Education Centre, University of York

From ethene to vinyl chloride

  1. Ethene + Chlorine → 1,2-Dichloroethane

    Direct chlorination adds chlorine across ethene's double bond.

  2. 1,2-Dichloroethane → Chloroethene

    Industrial cracking removes hydrogen chloride, leaving the double bond in vinyl chloride.

  1. PVC: monomer production, polymerisation and usesChemical Industry Education Centre, University of York

Sources

  1. PVC in resilient flooringTarkett
  2. PVC: monomer production, polymerisation and usesChemical Industry Education Centre, University of York