
In our previous articles, we’ve discussed the manufacturing and processing of plastics. We got into the details of injection and blow molding plastic manufacturing processes, and your response to those posts was quite phenomenal. Today, we will discuss the selection of the plastic material process to manufacture excellent quality products with great productivity.
Let’s dive into the infamous world of plastic selection –
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Selection of Right Plastic material –
Plastic material selection in itself is not a very difficult process. Still, it requires adequate knowledge about characteristics of different plastic materials and their suitability with the supposed end product and familiarity with the specialty of individual plastics.
Clearing out the purpose and function of the end product is very important to choose the right material. Then one has to assess the suitability of the range of candidate materials.
The following are the most essential and regarded characteristics for consideration of mostly all engineering products –
- Mechanical Properties – Strength, stiffness, specific kind of strength and stiffness, fatigue, and influence of high and low temperature on these following properties;
- Corrosion vulnerability and Degradation
- Wear Resistance and frictional properties
- Special properties like thermal, electrical, optical, and damping capacity
- Molding and other methods of fabrication
- Costs attributes
Let’s have a detailed discussion on all the characteristics mentioned above –
#1 Mechanical Properties –
Strength and Stiffness:
Thermoplastic materials are viscoelastic, meaning that their mechanical properities show signs of both viscous liquids and elastic solids. When a thermoplastic is stressed or pressured, it responds by exhibiting viscous flow.
This conventional stress-strain method is regularly used to describe the mechanical properties of plastics.
However, the stress-strain method should only be used for the initial sorting of materials. For long terms tests, the results will not be accurate.
There is always an elastic region for low strain, whereas, on high strains, stress and strain are parallel to each other. In the absence of specific information related to particular plastics, design strains should be kept at 1%.
Lower values are recommended for more fragile thermoplastics such as acrylic polystyrene, and values 0.2- 0.3% should be used for thermosets.
Fatigue:
Corrosion vulnerability and Degradation:
Wear Resistance and frictional properties:
#2 Special Properties –
Thermal Properties:
Optical Properties:
Final Thoughts –
Everything which is mentioned above about selecting the right plastic material is my finding over weeks of research. Those were my thoughts on the selection of plastic materials.
Feel free to write your reviews and thoughts in the comment box.
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