Plastics Available to the Designer

In the following sections most of the common plastics will be described briefly to give an idea of their range of properties and applications. However, before going on to this it is worthwhile considering briefly several of the special categories into which plastics are divided. 

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The previous section has given an indication of the range of plastics available to the design engineer. The important question then arises How do we decide which plastic, if any, is best for a particular application Material selection is not as difficult as it might appear but it does require an awareness of the general behaviour of plastics as a group, as well as a familiarity with the special characteristics of individual plastics. 

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