plastic thickness - mil/ mm/ gauge

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  • Unregistered

    plastic thickness - mil/ mm/ gauge

    I found a conversion (mm/ gauge) for sheet metal (ferrous and nonferrous) but I can't seem to find a way to convert plastic thicknesses between "mil", "mm" and "gauge". Each brand seems to use their own unit - making it impossible to compare. Your help would be most appreciated.
  • Unregistered

    #2
    Re: plastic thickness - mil/ mm/ gauge

    Plastic gauge is expressed in microns (abreviation um or mym)
    1 um = 0.0254mm.
    If (as in USA) film thickness is 3mil (mm) then this is 3 divided by 0.0254 = 118.11um. As with most extrusion this is generally called 120um given manufacturing tolerance +/- 5%.
    Most accurate gauge is calculated by weight i.e. specific gravity for LDPE is .92.
    However in most cases nominal gauge is more than suitable for general use.
    Yeild can be calculated for say plastic layflat tube (thats 2 thicknesses) by using width (mm) x gauge (um) x factor (LDPE = .00184 & HDPE = .00194) to give weight (kg) for 1000 lin. meters.
    950mm x 80um x .00184 = 139.84kg/1000 mtr.

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    • Robert Fogt
      Administrator
      Long Time Member The Golden Calculator Award Over 1000 Posts
      • Dec 2005
      • 3605

      #3
      Re: plastic thickness - mil/ mm/ gauge

      My research shows that for plastic film 1 gauge is equal to 0.01 mil, that would be 0.254 micron or 0.000254 millimeter.

      guage * 0.01 = mil
      mil / 0.01 = guage

      mil * 0.0254 = millimeter
      millimeter / 0.0254 = mil

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      • #4
        Re: plastic thickness - mil/ mm/ gauge

        I think the last 2 lines' operators should be backwards.
        mil / 0.0254 = millimeter
        millimeter * 0.0254 = mil

        cheers

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        • Robert Fogt
          Administrator
          Long Time Member The Golden Calculator Award Over 1000 Posts
          • Dec 2005
          • 3605

          #5
          Re: plastic thickness - mil/ mm/ gauge

          No they were right.

          mil * 0.0254 = millimeter
          millimeter / 0.0254 = mil

          For example, if you have 100 mil:
          100 mil * 0.0254 = 2.54 millimeter

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          • Unregistered

            #6
            Re: plastic thickness - mil/ mm/ gauge

            um sorry but what. I passed high school math barely. I'm tring to convert 13 "mil" to gauge. Sorry I don't understand the formula?

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            • Robert Fogt
              Administrator
              Long Time Member The Golden Calculator Award Over 1000 Posts
              • Dec 2005
              • 3605

              #7
              Re: plastic thickness - mil/ mm/ gauge

              This is for plastic? Can you provide additional information?

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              • #8
                Re: plastic thickness - mil/ mm/ gauge

                The conversion above seems confusing. I am just tring to convert mm to mil (film thickness). Would mil be the same as micron?

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                • Robert Fogt
                  Administrator
                  Long Time Member The Golden Calculator Award Over 1000 Posts
                  • Dec 2005
                  • 3605

                  #9
                  Re: plastic thickness - mil/ mm/ gauge

                  Originally posted by Confused
                  The conversion above seems confusing. I am just tring to convert mm to mil (film thickness). Would mil be the same as micron?
                  millimeter (mm) and mil are both units of length and can be converted easily on the Length conversion page.

                  1 millimeter = 39.3700787401575 mil

                  To do it by hand:

                  mm * 39.37 = mil

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                  • Unregistered

                    #10
                    Re: plastic thickness - mil/ mm/ gauge

                    does 20.3 mil strech wrap = 80 gauge ?

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                    • Mrs X
                      New Zealander
                      Long Time Member The Golden Calculator Award Over 1000 Posts
                      • Feb 2006
                      • 2751

                      #11
                      Re: plastic thickness - mil/ mm/ gauge

                      A caution for thickness - in metric countires, "mil" is also a lazy way of saying "millimeter". Thus 2mil - 2mm. We don't use "mil" at all, we use "thou" as in 3thou = 3 thousanths of an inch. Check what it means where you come from.

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                      • #12
                        Re: plastic thickness - mil/ mm/ gauge

                        It would seem, from reading the other posts, that mils in plastic thickness corresponds to thousandths of an inch. (1000 mils would equal 1 inch.)

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                        • Unregistered

                          #13
                          Re: plastic thickness - mil/ mm/ gauge

                          How much would be 250 microns in guage ??

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                          • Unregistered

                            #14
                            Re: plastic thickness - mil/ mm/ gauge

                            I'm having a similar issue. I'm in Mexico. Buying rolls of plastic sheeting everyone retail refers to gauge as between 6 to 16 with 10 and 12 being very common. I've been trying to buy some a bit thicker and went to a distributor in Mexico City where they sell rolls by the kilo in widths of about 4.5 feet. Suddenly they're talking about 150 and up to 500. They said they thought probably 200 was roughly equavalent to 22 gauge. To be more precise what units of measure do you think I need to be using to do a conversion from 22 gauge (called here calibre) to something in the low hundreds range.

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                            • Unregistered

                              #15
                              Re: plastic thickness - mil/ mm/ gauge

                              Originally posted by Unregistered
                              How much would be 250 microns in guage ??
                              I'm fairly sure that you multiply microns by 4 (near enough) to calculate guage of plastic film. e.g. 500 guage = 125 microns

                              250 microns * 4 = 1,000 guage (give or take).

                              Not 100% certain, but pretty sure. Maybe someone can approve this?

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