Overview

For most product design engineers, designing with plastics presents difficult problems, often resulting in missed opportunities or less than optimal plastic or plastic-containing products. The primary reason is that most design engineers are not experienced with plastics, since their education and training have prepared them for designing with metals. Furthermore, the chemical nature of plastics coupled with the extremely large number of plastics makes it often difficult for designers without specific training to properly understand and differentiate between kinds of plastics. The myriad grades and formulations only complicate the problem.

Based on this fundamental industry problem, the requirement exists for a well-categorized listing of plastic resins and compounds and their important properties for use by design engineers. This table, adapted from Modern Plastics Encyclopedia 98 , well meets this need. Coupled with the discussions on these materials in the text of this handbook, this comprehensive data table will provide the product design engineer with useful guidelines ranging from processing pressures and temperatures used for molding plastic materials to part shrinkage during molding and on to all of the important mechanical, thermal, and physical properties needed for part design. Also listed are the ASTM test methods used in determining these properties, for those who need further understanding of these properties and their limitations. Lastly, major suppliers are provided for each of the materials, along with a listing of addresses. This will enable source selection and help in obtaining more detailed data for each of the plastic materials listed.