Stiff Stiffer

Both polysaccharide molecules are relatively stiff, stiffer even than simple cellulosics such as HEC, and have a molecular masses in excess of two million. Recent work by Rinaudo and coworkers (Personal communication) and Crecenzi and colleagues (Int. J. Biol. Macromol., submitted) has shown that succinoglycan molecules are also stiffer than those of xanthan. 

Fig. 4. The effect of blade loading on the wet-coating thickness in flexible blade coating where ( ) represents a less stiff blade (B) represents a stiffer...

Also, it appears from the data that these metals are much stiffer and significantly stronger than the plastics. This approach to evaluation could eliminate the use of plastics in many potential applications, but in practice it is recognized by those familiar with the behavior of plastics that it is the stiffness and strength of the product that is important, not its material properties. 

To illustrate the correct approach, consider applications in which a material is used in sheet form, as in automotive body panels, and suppose that the service requirements are for stiffness and strength in flexure. First imagine four panels with identical dimensions that were manufactured from the four materials given in Table 3-1. Their flexural stiffnesses and strengths depend directly on the respective material s modulus and strength. All the other factors are shared in common with the other materials, there being no significantly different Poisson ratios. Thus, the relative panel properties are identical with the relative material properties illustrated in Fig. 3-3. Obviously, the metal panels will be stiffer and... 

Closely related to the strength of a bond is its stiffness (its resistance to stretching and compressing), with strong bonds typically being stiffer than weak bonds. The stiffness of bonds is studied by infrared (IR) spectroscopy, as described in Major Technique 1, which follows this chapter, and is used to identify compounds. 

Figure 9.14 shows a typical approach force curve along with schematic drawings of the relative positions of the SPM tip and the sample surface, as related to the force curve. At the start of the experiment, i.e., position A on the right-hand side of the figure, the tip is above the surface of the sample. As it approaches the surface the Z value decreases until at position B the tip contacts the surface. With further downward movement of the piezo the cantilever starts to be deflected by the force imposed on it by the surface. If the surface is much stiffer than the cantilever, we get a straight line with a slope of — 1, i.e., for every 1 nm of Z travel we get 1 nm of deflection (Une BC in Figure 9.14). If the surface has stiffness similar to that of the cantilever, the tip wUl penetrate the surface and we get a nonlinear curve with a decreased slope (line BD in Figure 9.14). The horizontal distance between the curve BD and the line BC is equal to the penetration at any given cantilever deflection or force. The piezo continues downward until a preset cantilever deflection is reached, the so-called trigger. The piezo is then retracted a predetermined distance, beyond the point at which the tip separates from the sample.

In tire tests, therefore, a stiffer tire construction reduces the wear. The stiffer construction not only includes the carcass and belt (i.e., height to width ratio), but also the tread pattern and the stiffness of the tread compound. Therefore, a correct road test requires two identical vehicles, each equipped with a test group of four identical tires. If this is not possible at least one axle has to have identical tires. If this is not the case an average slip will balance the acting force on the axle. This will be larger for the stiffer tire than is required if both tires had the same stiffness and smaller for the softer tire. Hence, the result is falsified to the advantage of the softer tire. The same argument holds for multi-section tires. 

Resilin and elastin have relatively high extensibility and resilience, but as compared to the collagen and the silks, the proteins sacrifice stiffness (elastic modulus) and strength (see Table 2). Collagen and dragUne sflk are much stiffer materials, but lack the extensibility that is characteristic of the rubber-like proteins. On the other hand, the mussel byssus fibers and the viscid silk have the extensibility of resilin and elastin, but lack the resilience [208]. 

Whereas the tensile strength was not a sensitive function of the monomer structure, the tensile modulus (Young s Modulus) was clearly related to the monomer structure. This is expected since the tensile modulus is a measure of the polymer s resistance to deformation and is related to the "stiffness" of a polymeric material. The highest tensile modulus (22,000 kg/cm2,2.2 GPa) was measured for poly(BPA iminocarbonate). Replacement of BPA by Dat-Tyr-Hex reduced the tensile modulus significantly. This observation can possibly be attributed to the presence of the long hexyl ester pendent chain in Dat-Tyr-Hex. Generally, the polyiminocarbonates were somewhat "stiffer" than the corresponding polycarbonates. Thus, the tensile moduli of poly(Dat-Tyr-Hex iminocarbonate) and poly(Dat-Tyr-Hex carbonate) were 16,300 kg/cm2 (1.6 GPa) and 13,900 kg/cm2 (1.3 GPa) respectively. 

The hot curing process normally uses polyether diol precursors with molecular weights of 3,000 to 5,000 g/mole. We can control the stiffness of the foam by adjusting the average number of isocyanate groups on the chain extender molecules. The higher the functionality of the isocyanate molecules, the more crosslinked, and hence stiffer, will be the product. 

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