-Manufacturing with Plastics

-Environmental Effects of
Plastics

PLASTICS ENGINEERING
- Encompasses the processing, design,
development,
and
manufacture
of
plastics products.
- Encompasses plastics material and
plastic machinery.

Classification by process rather than product or material

is more relevant, because most processes are suitable
for making products from a large variety of plastics
Casting - filling a mold by gravity
Liquid resins (epoxy)
Hot melted plastic poured into a casting (nylon)
Slush casting for thin walled products (snow boots,
gloves, toys)
Wet spinning -fibers formed by spinning the solution
through multi-hole dies
Rotational molding - variation of slush casting, mold
is heated as it is rotated. Works exceptionally well for
larger parts (IDOT barrels, chemical containers)

Molding - melt processing-polymers are deformed

with the aid of applied pressure
Results in a finished part
Need three things to be a molding operation
(Time, temperature, and pressure)

Extrusion
Pellets, granules or powder is placed into a hopper
and fed into the extruder barrel.
As screw in the barrel that turns it blends and moves
the material down the barrel.
Material then forced through a die that is in desired
shape. It is cooled by water or air and cut to length.
Largest production volume of plastics (bar, tube,
sheet, film)
Rated by the length to diameter ratio of the screw

Process can produce

Solid profiles
Hollow profiles
Wire and cable coating

Defects in Extrusion
Melt Fracture
Sharkskin

Injection molding
Similar to die casting metal. Pellets are fed into
heated cylinder where they are melted.
The screw rotates much like extrusion molder (it
moves back as material in front of it are melted) then
it rams forward pushing the melted material into the
die.
most wide spread technique for making 3-D
configurations
uses either reciprocating screw or reciprocating
plunger (RAM)
rated by clamping pressure of die

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 Defects in Injection Molding

Short Shots
Flashing
Sink marks and voids
Weld lines

Molds in injection molding are usually expensive

and complex

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Other molding techniques:

Thermoplastic Foam Injection Molding involves
the molding of thermoplastic parts that possess a
dense outer skin surrounding a light weight foam
center.
Multi-Injection Molding:
Sandwich injection of two separate polymers
Bi-injection used to combine plastics of two
different colors or to achieve different properties in
different sections of the same part.

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 Reaction Injection Molding (RIM) Two reactant

liquids are heated and brought together under
high pressure
Compression molding Pre-measured amount of
polymer introduced into the heated mold then the
top half comes down and applies pressure. Usually
uses thermosetting plastics and produces
products like dishes, container caps, etc.

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Blow Molding
Extruded tube or preform is expanded by internal
pressure (most bottles)

Extrusion blow molding

continuous tube is extruded, pinched off, placed in a
mold and blown into shape

Injection blow molding

part is injected into a mold then transferred and
blown into shape

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Thermoforming - Heating a thermoplastic sheet and

using a vacuum to pull the sheet over perforated
mold.
Fast food containers, advertising signs, panels for
shower stalls
Hot air pressure and vacuum forming - drive sheet
into female die cavity

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86% of ocean debris is plastic.

Photo taken in Lagos, Nigeria

 DANGER TO ANIMAL LIFE

Over 1,000,000 seabirds and marine mammals
die each year from plastic ingestion of
entanglement.

Photo taken: ec.gc.ca/marine/debris/ENG/facts.htm

Dolphins will eat pieces of plastic sheeting

because they thought its a jellyfish.

Dolphin being injured by plastic

debris

 DANGER TO ANIMAL LIFE

86% of ocean debris is plastic.

Photo taken in Lagos, Nigeria

 LOSS OF RESOURCES
Plastic bags are typically used for a short period
of time but take hundreds of years to break
down in landfill. While plastic bags can be
recycled, only a tiny proportion of plastic bags
are collected and reprocessed

 GREENHOUSE GASES
Based on using ten lightweight plastic bags per
week over a 2-year period, the greenhouse gas
impact has more than three times the
greenhouse gas impact of a reusable green
bag.
A lightweight plastic bags consumes about 4.5
times more energy in its manufacture than
reusable green bags.

to get the full greenhouse gas benefit from a

reusable green bag, it must be reused over 100
times.
However, that Starch-based biodegradable (or
compostable) bags consume less than onethird of the energy to produce as plastic
alternatives, but emit marginally more carbon
dioxide (CO2 - a greenhouse gas) as they
decompose. However, unlike single use plastic
bags, biodegradable bags will completely
breakdown.