A great idea for an easy DIY project recently came to our attention, so we thought we’d share it with you in a blog! A number of our cut plastic materials can be used effectively at very low temperatures – making them perfect for use in freezers.
Keeping a commercial or a domestic freezer organised can be a difficult task – particularly if the freezer does not have any shelves or dividers such as chest or walk-in freezers. Making dividers or shelves for freezers is a fairly simple task that can be done at home using sheets of polypropylene or PTFE.
The most efficient method of installing polypropylene freezer shelves is to use glue. Unfortunately, polypropylene has a good resistance to solvents which makes gluing it with a high strength result tricky. Use an adhesive which has been specifically developed for use with plastics and follow the instructions to the letter. For higher strength results, create a mechanical bond by roughing the surfaces that are to be joined with a coarse sandpaper before gluing.
A good idea for increasing the strength of a freezer shelf or divider is to sandwich the sheet which is to act as the shelf between two thicker pieces at the edges, creating a runner which will allow the shelf to be removed for cleaning. Alternatively, if your freezer already has supports designed for shelves, using a thicker sheet of plastic for the shelf and resting it on the supports will suffice.
Polypropylene is used in a huge range of food preparation environments thanks to its capacity for hygiene. In addition to being resilient to low temperatures, it can withstand very high temperatures and also has a very low moisture absorption rate. This makes steam cleaning an effective and very hygienic way of keeping your freezer clean, and your plastic shelving will continue to perform as it should.
PTFE is one of our most high performing engineering plastics, and it is often used as a lining material for cryogenic chambers. Whilst domestic freezers may not need to have a plastic that can operate in temperatures as low as -260oC, many commercial freezers will benefit from a material that is highly resistant to chemicals – including solvents and acids – with a very low moisture absorption rate and that will never warp through repeated steam cleaning cycles.
For more information on our polypropylene and PTFE sheeting which can be used to create shelving for freezers, please visit our main website.
