Thermoplastics economic data

The Economic Significance of Plastics 7.1 Economic Data on Thermoplastics [7]... 

Figures 9 and 10 provide current economic data on thermoplastics.

Organic fillers have been successful in a range of thermosetting resin formulations. Relatively little work has been reported on the use of organic fillers in thermoplastics. The data reported indicates that organic fillers have potential for use in thermoplastics resins. The low density and low cost on a volume basis makes organic fillers economically attractive. 

The gradual growth of the total USA plastic [RP and URP (unreinforced plastic)] industry for over a century has been spectacular evolving into today s routine to sophisticated high performance products (parts). Examples of these products are in building and construction (34 wt%), transportation (33%), sports and appliances (14%), electrical and electronic (10%), and others (9%). Use is made of thermoplastic (TP) and thermoset (TS) plastic matrixes. Plastics data source, such as the Society of Plastics Industry s (SPI s) suite of economic studies and statistics, provide current, comprehensive data, and analysis of the domestic and international trade markets for USA plastic materials, processing, machinery, and moldmaking industries that follows the ups and downs of the overall local and worldwide economy (www.plasticsdatasource.org or tel. 800.541.0736). 

All four processes have certain advantages and disadvantages with regard to production procedure, economics, and final properties of the product. Practically no comparable data of systematic studies exist on the influence of mode of production of thermoplast-thermoplast and elastomer-elastomer systems. Systematic studies on individual systems only exist for thermoplast-elastomer systems (see further, below). 

Equal volumes of the six major thermoplastics were used HOPE, LDPE, PET, PP, PS and PVC. Tetrahydrofuran was selected as the first trial solvent due to the data acquired in previous compositional quenching work [Lynch and Nauman, 1989J. Xylene has also been used. Results achieved are shown in Table 3.6. It shows that a four way split between plastic types can be achieved with good separation efficiencies. A lower separation efficiency is expected with an actual commingled waste plastic stream due to variations in polymer properties among manufacturers. However, it is expected that compositional quenching will overcome the problems. Preliminary economics has indicated a 50 million pound per year plant will process waste plastic for around 150/pound [Lynch and Nauman, 1989. ... 

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