What Affects Film Stiffness?

One of the key mechanical properties of plastic is stiffness. It can be defined as the material’s ability to evenly distribute a load as well as its resistance to deformation. The stiffness of a plastic film is controlled by several factors. Understandably, the intrinsic flexibility of the resin has the greatest effect on the material stiffness. The material’s level of flexibility is usually reported as flexural modulus or bending modulus of elasticity and reported in psi or pascals. These properties are often calculated as the ratio of stress to strain in flexural deformation and show the material's ability to resist bending. This property can be somewhat modified through the processing method with the use of additives or by creating multi-layer films.