Principles of Polymer Engineering

Shows why plastics and rubbers have distinctive properties and how they are affected by temperature, strain rate, and other factors. This book focuses on how these properties can be exploited to produce functional components within the constraints placed on them.

Polymers have an important role in manufacturing and their engineering properties form an important part of any course in engineering. This revised and updated second edition develops the principles of polymer engineering from the underlying materials science, and is aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students in engineering and materials science. The opening chapters explain why plastics and rubbers have such distinctive properties and how these are affected by temperature, strain rate, and other factors. The book then explores how these properties can be exploited within these property constraints to produce functional components. Major changes for this second edition include an introductory chapter on the environmental impact of polymers, emphasizing the important issues, and substantially revised sections on fracture testing for toughened polymers, yield, processing, heat transfer, and polymer forming.