What is New in Performance Plastics?

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Abstract
The field of performance plastics is showing remarkable vitality and growth, even though the participants find the price to be high in terms of technical and sales support required, together with high capital investment for plants. There has been a high degree of proliferation of new products in the form of new polymers, new grades of existing polymers, as well as filled, reinforced, alloyed versions. While this does introduce new degrees of freedom in material selection, it is a source of significant confusion for the design engineers who have to cope with selecting the preferred material from among the many that are available. The choices and data bases are becoming confusing. Various forms of relatively exotic, aromatic-monomer chemistry are being applied, but the emphasis appears to be on new amorphous polymers. High-performance requirements exist in virtually all segments of the plastics field; the major end uses are in aerospace, automotive, business machines, electrical/electronics, food packaging, and medical applications. Foreign presence has strongly increased as European companies have increased imports or have purchased established product lines or business units. There will be continued pressure on the performance plastics from the lower priced materials which are countering with upgraded, modified, alloyed versions of their own. There is also increased competition between thermoplastics and thermosets as the result of material developments and process refinements.

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