Fabricating products overview

The following articles provide an overview of the World of Plastics. This background information introduces the comprehensive view in the text of this book and permits readers to interrelate the many different subjects discussed in the text, from raw materials to the fabricated products. 

Figure 1.1 Overview of the plastic industries from source to products that includes plastics and fabrication processes (courtesy of Plastics FALLO)...

The second step is to prepare the conductive paths. For manual production each conductive path is applied on the foam and knitted fabric. For large-scale production the whole conductive path layer can be produced via flat knitting with a specified distance between the conductive paths. The contact between the cross-wise conductive paths and the control unit is made by sewing with conductive yam as shown in Figure 9.8. An overview of the steps needed for production of the movement sensors is given in Figure 9.9. 

Cotton Incorporated, 2002. Overview of Fabric Yellowing. Cotton Incorporated, Cary, NC. Available at http //www.cottoninc.com/product/Tech-Assistance-Training/Technical Bulletins/ (accessed 07.02.13). 

Although in principle this route can be used for the production of both glasses and polycrystalline ceramics, in practice it is hardly ever used for glasses because of the availability of more economical fabrication methods (e.g., melt casting). It is, however, by far the most widely used method for the production of polycrystalline ceramics. The various processing steps are shown in Fig. 1.15. In its simplest form, this method involves the consolidation of a mass of fine particles (i.e., a powder) to form a porous, shaped powder (referred to as a green body or powder compact), which is then fired (i.e., heated) to produce a dense product. Because of its importance and widespread use, the fabrication of polycrystalline ceramics from powders will form the main focus of this book. In the next section, we provide an overview of the fabrication of polycrystalline ceramics from powders which will form the basis for the more detailed considerations in subsequent chapters. 

The first reported synthesis of an aromatic polyimide was in 1908 (1). However, much of the credit for the development and commercialization of polyimide products goes to DuPont, who benchmarked thi.s endeavor in the 1960s with the release of Kapton H film, Vespel molded parts, and Pyre-ML wire varnish (2). This effort inspired other researchers in academia, industry, and government laboratories to piusue the chemistry, fabrication, and appUcations of pol3rimides not envisioned several decades ago. There are several excellent books that address the extensive topic of polyimides (3-6). This article provides an overview of the field of polyimides from ssmthesis and basic kinetic behavior to fabrication and articles of manufacture. 

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