Plastics Engineering

The first textbook to cover both properties and processing of reinforced and unreinforced plastics to this level. It assumes no prior knowledge of plastics and emphasizes the practical aspects of the subject. In this second edition over half the book has been rewritten and the remainder has been updated and reorganized. Early chapters give an introduction to the types of plastics which are currently available and describe how a designer goes about selection of a plastic for a particular application. Later chapters lead the reader into more advanced aspects of mechanical design and analysis of polymer melt flow. All techniques developed are illustrated by numerous worked examples, and several problems are given at the end of each chapter - the solutions to which form an Appendix.

(partial) General Properties of Plastics. Polymeric materials; Plastics available to the designer; Selection of plastics. Mechanical Properties of Plastics - Deformation. Viscoelastic behaviour of plastics; Short-term/Long-term testing of plastics; Design methods for plastics using deformation data; Mathematical models of viscoelastic behaviour; Intermittent loading; Deformation behaviour of reinforced plastics. Mechanical Properties of Plastics - Fracture. Concept of stress concentration; Energy approach to fracture; Stress intensity factor approach to fracture; General fracture behaviour of plastics; Creep failure of plastics; Fatigue of plastics; Impact behaviour of plastics. Processing of Plastics. Extrusion; Injection moulding; Thermoforming; Calendering; Rotational moulding; Compression moulding; Transfer moulding; Processing reinforced thermoplastics; Processing reinforced thermosets. Analysis of Polymer Melt Flow. General behaviour of polymer melts; Isothermal flow in channels; Elastic behaviour of polymer melts; Residence and relaxation times; Power used to extrude a polymer melt; Experimental methods used to obtain flow data; Analysis of flow during processing; Summary of melt flow equations. Appendices.