Design-bites - Illustrated product design booklets by Andrew Taylor

Product description

A practical guide to design in plastics (polymers), including engineering plastics, elastomers (rubbers and TPEs), foams, and composite plastics such as carbon fiber and DMC. Common processing techniques are described, including injection molding, RRIM, extrusion, overmolding, vacuum forming, honeycomb panel fabrication, pultrusion and lamination. Includes guidelines for snap fit design and polymer welding.

79 pages                file size 1.5 MB

Booklet content

F1: The Plastics (Polymers)

• Introduction, advantages and disadvantages of plastics
• General properties and uses of plastics. Plastics properties. 
• Plastics family tree. Engineering plastics. Commodity plastics.
• Properties of thermosets and thermoplastics
• Table of 35 selected modern plastics, with properties and applications
• Table of historical plastics

F2: Design in Plastics (Polymers)

• Quick reference table – plastics and processes. Polymer processing. Plastics forming. 
• Machining plastics, potting, dip molding, rotational molding
• Design for Vacuum forming, Blow molding, Engineered blow molding
• Design for Extrusion. Polymer extrusion. 
• Design for Compression molding and transfer molding (thermosets)
• Design for Injection molding (thermoplastics). Injection molding.
• Design of injection molded parts – wall thickness, geometry, draft.
• Bosses, ribs, inserts, texture, sink marks and witness lines
• Lateral features – simple tricks to avoid using side cores
• Telephone example
• Designing snap-fit joints. Snap fit design. 
• Graph of recommended tolerances. Plastics tolerances.
• Heat staking, ultrasonic welding and thermal welding
• Solvent welding plastics. 

F3: Plastic Foams (Polymer foams)

• General properties and uses of plastic foams (polymer foams)
• Foam molding, foam casting and foam extrusion
• Specific polymer foams and their applications

F4: Elastomers (rubber) / Design in Elastomers

• General properties and uses of elastomers. Elastomer properties. 
• Thermoset elastomers and thermoplastic elastomers
• Basic design criteria. Design in rubber and elastomers.
• Elastomer overmolding.  
• Seals
• Table of 29 selected thermoset and thermoplastic elastomers, with properties and common applications

F5: Plastic Composites

• Introduction and general applications
• Fillers and filled plastics. Polymer fillers. 
• Sheet-reinforced and fiber-reinforced plastics. Fiber reinforced polymers.
• Choice of fiber and matrix. Glass fiber. Carbon fiber.
• Fiber pre-forms
• Pre-mixed composites – DMC, Dough molding compound, SMC, Sheet molding compound. 

F6: Design in Plastic Composites

• Design with Fiberglass and Carbon fiber
• Composite strength and stiffness
• Cores, foam, hollow, honeycomb composite, honeycomb panel, sandwich panels. 
• Design for hand lay-up, spray molding and rotational molding. Design in GRP.
• Thermoset pre-preg molding. Pre-preg. 
• Press molding
• Injection molding, RRIM, CIM, resin transfer molding
• Filament winding, Tape winding, Pultrusion, Lamination
• Design in fiber reinforced plastic
• Design in laminated composites and sandwich panels
• Fastening composite plastics

Includes www links to further resources, organizations and suppliers.

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