Plastics panelling

One w ay to minimize or eliminate exposure to contaminants is to have a completely closed box wdth a glass or plastic panel to look through and gloves mounted in one or more walls. This type of local exhaust hood makes it possible to have a completely shielded workplace available nearly anyw here. 

Work in the Hood. A hood is a specially constructed workplace that has, at the least, a powered vent to suck noxious fumes outside. There s also a safety glass or plastic panel you can slide down as protection from exploding apparatus (Fig. 1). If it is at all possible, treat every chemical (even solids) as if toxic or bad smelling fumes came from it, and carry out as many of the operations in the organic lab as you can inside a hood, unless told otherwise. 

In 1992, Volvo built an aluminum-bodied hybrid Environmental Concept Car (ECC) to California emission mandates. It had the recyclable plastic panels and water-based paints that are used by Volvo. A series hybrid drive train was used where a diesel gas turbine drives a generator to charge a battery pack to power an electric motor. The system is complex, but the car achieves good performance with low emissions and a 400-mile range. 

Garden portals of plastic panels screwed on metal structures. 

Two types of plastic panels [effective size, 0.6 x 1.0 m made from poly(vinyl chloride) resin] were used for testing the sheets in polluted areas. One is the open type (the sheets are exposed to air) and the other a windowed type. The open type can simulate realistic conditions. The windowed type has a Pyrex glass window that allows the UV light to reach the sheets. The roadside air was continuously pumped to the windowed panels at 15-60 1 min-1. This type was used for estimating the amount of air coming into contacted with the materials. The air purifying materials were attached to the panels using adhesive tape. 

In 1992, Volvo built an aluminum-bodied hybrid Environmental Concept Car (ECC) to California emission mandates. It had the recyclable plastic panels and water-based paints that are used in a Volvo. 

Small houses (6x8 ft) are often built with 2-in thick walls filled foam inserted between reinforced plastic panels —similarly to modern refriger ators. The plastic material used should be non-flammable and non-toxic if is to be exposed to fire. In addition, the construction should withstand wih s of up to 200 km/h. 

Up to approximately 200°C in on-line painting, where the plastic panel is assembled to the vehicle prior to the high temperamre of the postcorrosion resistance coating oven (E-coat). 

Approximately 120 to 140°C in off-line painting, where the plastic panels are painted independently of the vehicle and are assembled as painted parts. 

Roof panels are another relatively new application for polymer blends. For this purpose, panels are injection molded to resemble cedar shakes, with a single plastic panel replacing several individual shakes. One obvious benefit is the reduced labor involved in installation. Furthermore, the panels are interlocking and light in weight. Because they are plastic, they resist mildew and are suitable for all climates. PPE/PS has been... 

Storm Windows - Glass, plastic panels, or plastic sheets that reduce air infiltration and some heat loss when attached to either the interior or exterior of existing windows. 

Load and support conditions for individual components depend on the complete structure (or system) analysis, and are unknown to be determined in that analysis. For example, if a plastic panel is mounted into a much more rigid structure, then its support conditions can be specified with acceptable accuracy. However, if the surrounding structure has comparable flexibility to the panel, then the interface conditions will depend on the flexural analysis of the complete structure. In a more localized context, structural stiffness may be achieved by ribbing and relevant analyses may be carried out using available design formulae (usually for elastic behavior) or finite element analysis, but necessary anisotropy or viscoelasticity complicate the analysis, often beyond the ability of the design analyst. 

Thermal movement of the panels should be considered when specifying paint colour. Plastic panels usually have a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than other building materials. 

Glass reinforced plastics panel cladding/features (National Building Specification H41 (1989))... 

There are two basic categories of acceptance standards performance standards and product specifications. Performance standards focus on the ability of a material, component or assembly to resist the loads or environmental effects of its intended application. Product specifications focus on aspects of material quality, which may affect strength, appearance and durability. In some instances it may be possible to use existing standards directly with newly developed products and materials in other cases it may be necessary to modify existing standards or develop new standards to assure equitable evaluation. Consensus committees comprising producer, consumer, and user groups develop performance standards, which are used to evaluate the engineering performance of wood-based panels, such as hardboard, MDF and particleboard. This standard was used because no standard exists for the evaluation of woodfibre-plastic panel materials. 

Nevertheless, auto makers and adhesive formulators have been able to work around these difficulties and structural plastics are being used in increasing amounts. For example, the hood of the 1984 Pontiac Fiero consists of two plastic panels adhesively bonded together. The RRIM panels on the car s doors are also adhesively bonded. Ford has recently built an experimental car in which the body, chassis, and power train are made of graphite-reinforced composites. Almost the entire assembly, including primary load bearing joints, was bonded with a polyurethane structural adhesive in place of mechanical fasteners or welds. ... 

Several vehicle designs with wholly plastic panels mounted on a metal... 

The second major landmark at General Motors, 30 years after the Corvette, was the development of the Pontiac Fiero. This used four different categories of material SMC for the most rigid panels (the bonnet and the roof - a relatively small panel in this two-seater sports car), RIM and reinforced RIM for the side panels, and injection moulded PP-EPDM for the impact-resistant bumpers. The Fiero was an impressive indicator of the GM committment to plastics, and considerable sales were achieved between 1984 and 1988. However, the design, involving a rather heavy steel space frame, was less innovative than the assembly process, with its devices for locating the variety of plastic panels. The focus at GM moved in 1990 to the APV (Advanced... 

There are many successful applications of this type, but nevertheless to move from these to a complete space frame would still be a big conceptual leap. The perceived wisdom at the present time is that any car body made up of individual panels must be based on a supporting space frame, and that the frame structure should be made of steel, or conceivably aluminium. Space frames in aluminium have in fact been used to support plastics panels in several concept cars, from the BL ECV-3 of the early 1980s to GE Plastics Ethos II of 1993. 

Compatibility with the assembly line will continue to be the dominant consideration. An assembly line that has been designed from scratch for a new steel/plastics hybrid is likely to be quite different from one which has been adapted to accommodate replacement plastic panels. 

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