Nothing is more important than choosing the right material for your plastic knob or handle.  Careful consideration of the end user and application can save time and money in the long-run.  Don’t know where to start?  Here is list of materials for both thermoset molding and thermoplastic molding and their applications to get you started.  Talk to our highly trained technical sales and engineering staff if you have questions.  We work with hundreds of various materials and constantly reviewing new materials as they come on the market.  What materials are available for plastic knobs and which is right for my application?

Having the right color part is very important for many applications that require knobs, either because it is functional, industry or product specific, or for appearance. The standard color for phenolic material is black. Other colors are available, but usually cost more. Red is the second most popular phenolic knob color, typically used for ball or lever knobs.   Unlike thermoset phenolic, thermoplastic materials have a very wide range of available colors. In many cases you can match your color target exactly to a PMS number.  

There are a variety of plastic knobs that are particularly suited for manual valve controls.  Bart/T knobs are the most popular plastic knobs used for manual valve control applications. Here are examples of different shapes of bar knobs available.  

We have a long history of manufacturing plastic knobs, especially phenolic plastic knobs.  But we also mold phenolic custom plastic parts, such as the plastic butterfly valve for the oil & gas industry. We started manufacturing butterfly valves a few years ago because the company that needed them got fed up with their overseas vendor.