uhmwpe particles or powder introduced at the compaction station 26 must exhibit high crystallinity preferably above 76 as determined by x ray diffraction and a heat of fusion equal to or greater than 220 joules gram as determined by differential scanning calorimetry to ensure low levels of entanglement downstream of the rolling station 32 outside of these crystallinity and heat of fusion parameters the extremely large uhmwpe molecules undesirably entangle or form knots at the discharge of the rolling station 32 outside of the stated crystallinity and heat of fusion parameters the uhmwpe cannot be drawn into a smooth sheet but rather is entangled with knots it is critically important to the successful practice of the present invention that the input starting material particulate uhmwpe possesses the degree of crystallinity and heat of fusion stated herein to meet the low entanglement requirements as a result of the compression shearing and drawing of the uhmwpe molecules in the rolling station 32 the calendered sheet 34 exits the rolling station 32 in a partially oriented state as shown in fig1 after the rolling station 32 the calendered uhmwpe sheet 34 enters a trimming unit 36 in which the edges may be trimmed off the sheet 38 then passes through a first stage drawing unit 40 in which the sheet is drawn at a ratio of between 2 1 to 4 1 at the exit of the first stage drawing unit 40 of the.