Melamine Formaldehyde (aka Melamine)
Melamine occupies a unique place in the plastics family. Having been used since the 1930s it is one of the oldest commercially used plastics and still has no major replacement in relation to its use in plastic tableware. Just think of its bright colours, the hard, clanking sounds as bowls knock together and the stiffness and hardness that resembles ceramic. No other thermoplastic comes close to offering this same combination of characteristics.
Melamine is from the same thermoset family as urea and phenol formaldehyde. It offers an excellent surface finish with a much better ability to take colour, but it is generally more expensive. It imparts absolutely no smell or taste to food and feels hard, dense, rigid ...
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