Plastic Tips » Material Selection
Did you know?
Design based material selection involves meeting the part performance requirements with a minimum system cost while considering preliminary part design, material performance and manufacturing constraints. System cost has two components – cost of the material and cost of molding the part. Specific requirements for individual applications drive the process for selecting plastics.
The Thermoplastic Rectangle (see Table 1) representation of the key characteristics of the two categories of thermoplastics should give guidance in understanding and selecting the best material for your application.
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Table 1. Thermoplastics Rectangle |
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The varying chemical structure of the amorphous and semi-crystalline plastics, gives each category its own unique set of mechanical and physical properties. Some generalizations are summarized below (see Table 2). Those higher in the hierarchy within the Rectangle, as you go from Commodity to High Performance, generally carry higher loads and withstand impact, high temperatures and chemical attack better.
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Table 2. Polymer Relative Properties |
Columbia Plastics Ltd. has successfully designed molds for and manufactured parts from polymers within the full Thermoplastics Rectangle. Columbia also works very closely with all the major resin suppliers , incorporating all the current technical information on polymers into the part and mold designs.
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