Sep 14, 2009 -
Advances in the Art and Science of Metal to Plastic Replacement
In the relentless search for cost reduction, plastics continue to advance in replacing metal parts. Beyond lowering cost, metal parts replacement and conversions of metals to plastics can provide many other performance benefits such as weight reduction and corrosion resistance. However, plastics materials which are fundamentally different from metal in molecular structure are vitally different from metals not only in intrinsic short term properties but also in the way they react under application to the influences of time, temperature, and load. Failure to use techniques that consider the influence of these variables in the application of the part frequently leads to products that are either over- or under- engineered.
