Reinforced plastics growth rate

The polymer is either produced in a bulk or a solution process. It is among the fastest growing engineering thermoplastics, and leads the market of reinforced plastics with an annual growth rate of 13% ... 

There is increasing interest in the application of reinforced plastics for metal replacement in the automotive industry to reduce weight and cost. In some applications, reinforced plastics also oner performance advantages over metal. Although the automotive industry is greatly depressed at the present time, a recent report indicates an 11.6% annual growth rate for reinforced plastics in cars and trucks in the next five years (8). 

Figure 10.12 When growth rate of different materials are made, reinforced and unreinforced plastie stands out (courtesy of Plastic FALLO)...

This Landolt-Bomstein book, Volume Vlll/6, provides a compilation of quantitative parameters craicem-ing thermomechanical, mechanical and fracture-mechanical properties of pure, filled and reinforced thermoplastics, thermosets and high-performance composites. Because there has been very rapid and dynamic progress in this field of research, and because of the enormous growth rates of the available material systems in plastics production and use, it seemed appropriate to review the data currently available in the literature from a systematic perspective. 

The European railway sector has been anticipated to double its use of reinforced plastics between 2000 and 2005, up to at least 100,000 tonnes. The biggest growth is expected in glass-reinforced polyester composites, in above-ground rolling stock but they must have a low heat emission rate and low smoke and toxic fumes in the event of a fire. 

Plastic office furniture, principally just for chairs, panels, and laminates for desks, represents about a 10 billion market or just 31 wt% of all plastics. Unreinforced and glass reinforced PPs are principally used. Lawn and garden furniture consumes about 21 wt% plastics also principally using PPs. All these products as well as others have a good growth rate. 

PBT and polyamide 66 are the most commonly used plastics for electrical connectors. The two polymers together have a market share of 10-15% in the 25 billion world market for connectors, of which North America accounts for 10 billion. For reinforced polyamide 66, an annual growth rate of 5-7% is forecast for the years 2000-2002. Higher performance plastics such as LCP and PPS are increasingly taking over in the electronics segment from the PA66 that has so far dominated the scene. Most electrical connectors (300 million per year) are used in computers and their peripherals, followed by telephone and data transmission applications. 

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