Design brief defined

The best way to ensure controlled development of the brief, and of the cost plans which necessarily accompany it, is to set up a system of data sheets which define, in increasing detail as the project develops, the spatial, functional and servicing requirements of each component part of the project. A well-resourced technical client may wish to do this himself. More commonly, it is a task which should be entrusted to the design team. Whoever does it, regular joint review of this information will help to ensure satisfaction with the finished product. 

So far, a great number of well-defined macromonomers as branch candidates have been prepared as will be described in Sect. 3. Then a problem is how to control their polymerization and copolymerization, that is how to design the backbone length, the backbone/branch composition, and their distribution. This will be discussed in Sect. 4. In brief, radical homopolymerization and copolymerization of macromonomers to poly(macromonomers) and statistical graft copolymers, respectively, have been fairly well understood in comparison with those of conventional monomers. However, a more precise control over the backbone length and distribution by, e.g., a living (co)polymerization is still an unsolved challenge. 

As noted in previous chapters, important information is obtained by equilibrium measurements and correlations regarding a given crystallization process. However, much of the effort expended in developing and designing such a process is dedicated to defining the rate processes involved. This chapter presents a brief discussion of the rate processes which define the nature of the final crystalline product and, of course, the equipment required to produce it. 

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