Plasticity, definition

Technical Mouldings (Plastics). Definition and Conditions for Certification, 1949. 

All materials, including plastics, definitely create major waste problems. Corrective action must therefore be taken in a positive direction. Effective education involves having people participate in programs such as not littering, separating trash, and purchasing or storing products wisely so that excess trash is not deliberately created. 

This plasticizer definition is not specific to any chemical or material. It is solely a description of certain performance criteria. Unformnately, these and other performance criteria cannot be easily predicted from the chemical or physical properties of the plasticizer, per se. Thus, it is necessary to define plasticizers by both the performance and chemical classifications. ... 

Thus, under conditions of plastic defonnation the real area of contact is proportional to the nonnal force. If the shear force during sliding is proportional to that area, one has the condition that the shear force is proportional to the nonnal force, thus leading to the definition of a coefficient of friction. 

One problem associated with discussing flame retardants is the lack of a clear, uniform definition of flammabiHty. Hence, no clear, uniform definition of decreased flammabiHty exists. The latest American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) compilation of fire tests Hsts over one hundred methods for assessing the flammabiHty of materials (2). These range in severity from small-scale measures of the ignitabiHty of a material to actual testing in a full-scale fire. Several of the most common tests used on plastics are summarized in Table 1. 

The properties of commercial rigid foamed plastics are presented in Table 2. The properties of commercial flexible foamed plastics are presented in Table 4. The definition of a flexible foamed plastic is that recommended by the ASTM Committee D 11. The data shown demonstrate the broad ranges of properties of commercial products rather than an accurate set of properties on a specific few materials. Specific producers of foamed plastics should be consulted for properties on a particular product (137,138,142). 

Thickness. The traditional definition of thermal conductivity as an intrinsic property of a material where conduction is the only mode of heat transmission is not appHcable to low density materials. Although radiation between parallel surfaces is independent of distance, the measurement of X where radiation is significant requires the introduction of an additional variable, thickness. The thickness effect is observed in materials of low density at ambient temperatures and in materials of higher density at elevated temperatures. It depends on the radiation permeance of the materials, which in turn is influenced by the absorption coefficient and the density. For a cellular plastic material having a density on the order of 10 kg/m, the difference between a 25 and 100 mm thick specimen ranges from 12—15%. This reduces to less than 4% for a density of 48 kg/m. References 23—27 discuss the issue of thickness in more detail. 

A plasticizer is a substance the addition of which to another material makes that material softer and more flexible. This broad definition encompasses the use of water to plasticize clay for the production of pottery, and oils to plasticize pitch for caulking boats. A more precise definition of plasticizers is that they are materials which, when added to a polymer, cause an increase in the flexibiUty and workabiUty, brought about by a decrease in the glass-transition temperature, T, of the polymer. The most widely plasticized polymer is poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) due to its excellent plasticizer compatibility characteristics, and the development of plasticizers closely follows the development of this commodity polymer. However, plasticizers have also been used and remain in use with other polymer types. 

The advantage of this test is that it is quick and easy to do, and gives an indication of biodegradation potential. However, the test is not definitive, because any impurities in the plastic, such as plasticizers and solvents, may interfere with the test by promoting growth, and thus give false positive results. 

The traditional definition of a barrier polymer requited an oxygen permeabihty less than 2 nmol /(m-s-GPa) (originally, less than (1 comil)/(100 in. datm)) at room temperature. This definition was based pardy on function and partiy on conforming to the old commercial unit of permeabihty. The old commercial unit of permeabihty was created so that the oxygen permeabihty of Saran Wrap brand plastic film, a trademark of The Dow Chemical Company, would have a numerical value of 1. 

The most widely used plasticizers are paraffinic oils. Por appHcations that specify high use temperatures, or for peroxide cures, paraffinic oils of low volatihty are definitely recommended. However, since paraffinic oils exude at low temperatures from EPDM vulcanizates, or from high ethylene EPDMs, they are often blended with naphthenic oils. On the other hand, naphthenic oils interfere with peroxide cures. Aromatic oils reduce the mechanical properties of vulcanizates, and they also interfere with peroxide cures. Therefore, they are not recommended for EPM/EPDM. 

FIG. 26-39 Definition of the venting capability EF of an explosion door in comparison with a plastic foil rupture disk. 

Although it is very difficult and probably of little value to produce an adequate definition of the word plastics , it is profitable to consider the chemical structure of known plastics materials and try to see if they have any features in common. 

The title of the book requires that a definition of plastics materials be given. This is however very difficult. For the purpose of this book I eventually used as a working definition Those materials which are considered to be plastics materials by common acceptance . Not a positive definition but one which is probably less capable of being criticised than any other definition I have seen. Perhaps a rather more useful definition but one which requires clarification is... 

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