This introductory book covers the entire spectrum of plastics technology / engineering, from raw materials to finished plastic products. It is not just for university / college students in plastics technology and other engineering disciplines but also for beginners to the field in general. The interconnectivity between the different relevant knowledge areas of plastics technology, such as materials engineering, processing technology, and product development, is emphasized. A chapter "Plastics and the Environment" is also included, covering a topic (rightly) often of great concern to students and newcomers to the field. So includes numerous videos, conveniently linked via QR codes, to better demonstrate key processes visually.

Because the field of plastics is one of the fastest changing areas today, the need arises to offer relevant, comprehensive material on polymers. An established source of information on modern plastics, the Plastics Technology Handbook continues to provide up-to-date coverage on the properties, processing methods, and applications of polymers. Retaining the easy-to-follow structure of the previous editions, this fourth edition includes new topics of interest that reflect recent developments and lead to better insights into the molecular behavior of polymers. New to the Fourth Edition Advances in supramolecular polymerization, flame retardancy, polymer-based nanomedicines, and drug delivery The new concept of oxo-biodegradable polymers Broadened discussion on plastic foams and foam extrusion processes More information on the processing and applications of industrial polymers, including the emerging field of nanoblends Developments in polymer synthesis and applications, such as polymeric sensors, hydrogels and smart polymers, hyperbranched polymers, shape memory polymers, polymeric optical fibers, scavenger resins, polymer nanocomposites, polymerization-filled composites, and wood-polymer composites A state-of-the-art account of the various available methods for plastics recycling Advances in the use of polymers in packaging, construction, the automotive and aerospace industries, agriculture, electronics and electrical technology, biomedical applications, corrosion prevention, and sports and marine applications Plastics Technology Handbook, Fourth Edition thoroughly covers traditional industrial polymers and their processing methods as well as contemporary polymeric materials, recent trends, and the latest applications.

Updated throughout to reflect advances over the last decade, the Fifth Edition continues the handbook’s tradition of authoritative coverage of fundamentals, production methods, properties, and applications of plastics and polymer-based materials. It covers tooling for plastics fabrication processes, thermoplastics, thermosetting plastics, foamed plastics, reinforced plastics, plastisols, and new developments in mold design. It also discusses rubber compounding and processing technologies. More recent developments in polymer fabrication and processing, including electrospinning, electrografted coating, polymer-metal hybrid joining, flex printing, and rapid prototyping/ 3D printing, are also presented. The handbook highlights advanced materials including natural and synthetic gfnanosize polymers, their unusual properties, and innovative applications, as well as polymer-carbon nanocomposites, graphene-based polymer nanocomposites, smart healable polymer composites, smart polymer coatings, electroactive polymers, polymer nanomaterials, and novel nano-/microfibrillar polymer composites. It offers updates on polymer solar battery development, plastics recycling and disposal methods, new concepts of "upcycling" and single-polymer composites, renewable synthetic polymers, biodegradable plastics and composites, and toxicity of plastics. The book also provides an overview of new developments in polymer applications in various fields including packaging, building and construction, corrosion prevention and control, automotive, aerospace applications, electrical and electronic applications, agriculture and horticulture, domestic appliances and business machines, medical and biomedical applications, marine and offshore applications, and sports.

Provides a basic understanding of plastics processing technology at a level suitable for technicians, managers, buyers, quality assurance personnel, and engineers who have minimal experience with plastics. Highlights the key aspects of materials, thermodynamics, fluid technology, control, and tool/p

"Completely updated and enlarged to reflect the advances that have taken place since the publication of the Second Edition. Third Edition offers concise examinations of the chemical nature, characteristic properties, and uses of traditional industrial polymers, such as acrylics, polyolefins, vinyl polymers, polyesters, epoxies, and silicones, among others."

This comprehensive handbook provides a simplified, practical and innovative approach to understanding the design and manufacture of plastic products. It will expand the reader's understanding of plastics technology by defining and focusing on past, current, and future technical trends. The content is presented so that both technical and nontechnical readers can understand the interrelationships of materials to processes. Different plastic products are examined and their related critical factors are shown, from meeting performance requirements in different environments, to reducing costs and targeting for zero defects. Examples used include small to large, and simple to complex shapes. Information is included on static properties (tensile, flexural), dynamic properties (creep, fatigue, impact) and physical and chemical properties. Extensive reference sources and useful data and physical and chemical constants are also provided. Volume 2 offers detailed coverage of most major plastics processing techniques, including injection molding, extrusion, blow molding, and thermoforming.

Plastics play a very important role in our daily lives. Throughout the world the demand for plastic, particularly plastic packaging, continues to rapidly grow. Polymer technology deals with the manufacture and production of polymer and synthetic substances. Plastic is incredibly versatile and can be made from different ingredients, moulded into any shape, and put to a huge range of uses across industry and the rest of society, from carrier bags to electrical cables. Polymer energy system is an award winning, innovative, proprietary process to convert waste plastics into renewable energy. Some of the important example of polymers and plastics are polytetra fluoroethylene (PTFE), polyether sulphone (PES), phenol-formaldehyde (PF), polyolefins, vinyl polymers, thermoplastic polyesters, polysulfones, poly(phenylene sulfide), etc. Polymers are the most rapidly growing sector of the materials industry. The Indian plastic industry has taken great strides. In the last few decades, the industry has grown to the status of a leading sector in the country with a sizable base. The material is gaining notable importance in different spheres of activity and the per capita consumption is increasing at a fast pace. Continuous advancements and developments in polymer technology, processing machineries, expertise, and cost effective manufacturing is fast replacing the typical materials in different segments with plastics. On the basis of value added, Indian share of plastic products industry is about 0.5% of national GDP. The major contents of the book are properties and applications of speciality plastics, thermoset plastics, applications of recycle plastics, introduction of polymer science, polymer additives, blends and composites, commodity thermoplastics and fibres etc. This book also consists of raw material suppliers for plastic and plastic products, manufacturers of plastic, processing machinery, plastics processing machinery and equipment (foreign), machinery and equipment for plastic converting, extruders and extrusion lines, injection moulding machines, presses and accessories, blow moulding and thermoforming machines etc. The book has been designed with the idea of blending and integrating basic polymer science and the technology of plastics into a composite structure. This book is an outcome of an endeavour in the direction of polymer and plastic processing. It would be of immense use to entrepreneurs, consultants, students and libraries etc.

Because of the sheer size of the plastics industry, the title Developments in Plastics Technology now covers an incredibly wide range of subjects or topics. No single volume can survey the whole field in any depth and so what follows is therefore a series of chapters on selected topics. The topics were selected by us, the editors, because of their immediate relevance to the plastics industry. When one considers the materials produced and used by the modern plastics industry, there is a tendency to think of the commodity thermoplastics (such as poly(vinyl chloride) or polyethylene); the thermosetting materials are largely ignored. Because of this attitude we are very pleased to include in this volume a chapter which deals with the processing of a thermosetting material, i.e. the pultrusion of glass reinforced polyester. The extrusion of plastics is, of course, a very important subject but an aspect which is often overlooked is the need to remove volatile matter during processing: for this reason we have included a chapter on devolatilisation. Current industrial practice is towards materials modification and this attitude is reflected in the chapters on the transformation of ethylene vinyl acetate polymers and the use of wollastonite in two important thermoplastics. When assessing the performance of materials, there is a tendency to concentrate on short-term mechanical tests and ignore such topics as fatigue and longer-term testing. We are therefore very pleased to include a chapter on this subject.

"This book adds much to the already evolving field of Design for Environment; but it goes far beyond most works on this subject by surrounding the central notions of life cycle assessment with a scientific body of knowledge and with a more practical slant reflecting the reality of the organizations in which product development occurs. Through a focus on plastic products, the authors show the importance of making ties between basic technical knowledge and the process of life cycle engineering. Their approach offers a practical, deliberate way to make ecologically and economically sensible decisions about product reuse and recycling and other critical dimensions of product life behavior. They demonstrate a positive approach to designing products that fits into a sustainable economy through down-to-earth cases. While the book focuses on the life cycle engineering of plastics, it is only a short step to other materials and products. Beyond contributing to the technology of life cycle engineering, this text adds to the growing body of knowledge that argues for an fundamentally new way of thinking about economic and social activity--a new paradigm for sustainable social and industrial problem solving. Industrial ecology is such a new system for thinking about and implementing sustainability that draws its core set of ideas from the ecological world. Industrial ecology brings to the surface the idea of interdependence among members of a community-- natural or economic, and notes the material cycles that are central to a stable ecosystem. The life cycle engineering framework, coupled with sound scientific knowledge of materials behavior as articulated in this book, makes a giant step towards bringing the model of industrial ecology into everyday practice." From the Preface by John R. Ehrenfeld Director, MIT Technology, Business and Environment Program Center for Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development

One of the tasks of rheology is to empirically establish the relationships between deformations and stresses, respectively their derivatives by adequate measurements. These experimental techniques are known as rheometry and are concerned with the determination with well-defined rheological material functions. Such relationships are then amenable to mathematical treatment by the established methods of continuum mechanics.