Difference of Heavy Duty and Light Ground Protection Mats
There a 2 types of ground protection mats in the market. One is light ground protection mats which is suitable for people to walk on, or for light vehicles such as home cars to drive on flat solid ground or grass. The other type is heavy duty ground protection mats which allow heavy equipment and heavy vehicles to drive on, it can be used on soft and mud road.
Light ground protection mats are made by HDPE or LDPE which do not contains molecular weight or only a few molecular weight, it usually processed by extruder.
Heavy duty ground protection mats are made by UHMWPE which is also known as UPE, road mats are produced by moulding press.
How to tell if the mats are light type or heavy duty type?
Well, they look the same, but if you observe them carefully, you can still find many different points.
1. The back side: HDPE and LDPE are soft materials, due to the production craft, most of them have marks on the back side, this mark is from the extrusion process.
Heavy duty ground protection mats are made by moulding press, the back side is flat and smooth.
2. The edge: HDPE and LDPE mats have irregular edge, there remains melted raw materials.
UHMWPE/UPE has sharp edge.
3. Durability:
HDPE/LDPE Road mats only allows people to walk on or light vehicles to drive on. they can only be used on solid and flat ground. If the loading is too heavy, the mats may break, crack damage or split.
UHMWPE/UPE road mats are super durable, it wont break even under extrem heavy loading.
4. Cost
Considering the raw materials and process craft, UHMWPE/UPE ground protection mats are more expensive than HDPE/LDPE ground protection mats.
Customer should choose the right type according to their applications.
