The major end-use industries of the Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene market are aerospace, defense, & shipping, healthcare & medical, mechanical equipment and others, which include sports & lifestyle and electronics industries. Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMW PE) is a simple linear background polyethylene possessing unique properties such as noise resistance, low coefficient of friction, excellent chemical resistance, self-lubrication, bio-compatible, wear resistance, and electric insulation resistance.

Increasing demand of UHMWPE by the healthcare & medical industry is expected to drive the market across regions. North America is estimated to lead the global UHMW PE market in 2016. The Asia-Pacific UHMWPE market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2016 to 2026, owing to the increasing demand for medical devices from countries, such as China, Japan, and India.

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Healthcare & Medical

The healthcare & medical segment is projected to contribute the largest share in the consumption of UHMWPE worldwide, during the forecast period. Due to properties such as, low absorption and self-lubrication, fatigue resistance, yield strength, and high elastic modulus, manufacturers prefer UHMWPE over other polymers. UHMWPE has excellent chemical resistance, excellent dielectric & electrical insulating properties, and superior sound dampening characteristics, owing to which it is increasingly used in orthopedic industry.

Aerospace, Defense, and Shipping

UHMWPE is widely used in various applications in the aerospace, defense, and shipping industries. Features such as light weight, thermal insulation, noise reduction, resistance to fatigue, resistance to wear, fuel resistance, de-icing, fluid resistance, electrostatic dissipation, low friction, and chemical resistance makes UHMWPE ideal for use in these industries. In aerospace, it is used in interior design (tray tables, windows, canopies, arm rests, valve seats), exterior structures, propulsion equipment, and so on. It is also used as a base material to shield cosmic radiation in the aerospace application.

Mechanical Equipment

UHMWPE is widely used for machining processes in various industries such as textiles, paper & pulp, foods & beverages, iron & steel, bottling, power, railcars, cement, chemical, minerals & metals, farm machinery, unit material handling, parcel handling, conveyor equipment, distribution centers, and so on. UHMWPE helps to enhance surface lubricity which leads to the free movement of machine components and reduces jamming from dirt, grit, or static build-up.

The most common applications of UHMWPE in mechanical equipment include belt skirting, chute liners, hopper liners, transfer plates, under belt wear strips, guide rollers, diverter bars, dead plates, hitch plates, belt scarpers, bunker liners, cyclones, dragline buckets, pug mill paddles, vibratory feeder liners, vibrator bin discharges, surge bin liners, silo liners, screw conveyor liners, off road truck beds, dust collection hopper liners, and conveying components such as bearings, belt guides, chain guides, curves, guide rails, and wear strips.

Braskem S.A. (Brazil), Celanese Corporation (U.S.), LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (Netherlands), Koninklijke DSM N.V. (Netherlands), Asahi Kasei Corporation (Japan), Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Japan), Quadrant Engineering Plastic Products AG (Switzerland), E. I. Du Pont De Nemours and Company (U.S.), Honeywell International, Inc. (U.S.), Toyobo Co., Limited (Japan), and Rochling Engineering Plastics SE & Co. KG (Germany) are some of the key players in the global UHMW PE market.