Author Description

Updated throughout to reflect advances over the last decade, the Fifth Edition continues the handbook’s tradition of authoritative coverage of fundamentals, production methods, properties, and applications of plastics and polymer-based materials. It covers tooling for plastics fabrication processes, thermoplastics, thermosetting plastics, foamed plastics, reinforced plastics, plastisols, and new developments in mold design. It also discusses rubber compounding and processing technologies. More recent developments in polymer fabrication and processing, including electrospinning, electrografted coating, polymer-metal hybrid joining, flex printing, and rapid prototyping/ 3D printing, are also presented. The handbook highlights advanced materials including natural and synthetic gfnanosize polymers, their unusual properties, and innovative applications, as well as polymer-carbon nanocomposites, graphene-based polymer nanocomposites, smart healable polymer composites, smart polymer coatings, electroactive polymers, polymer nanomaterials, and novel nano-/microfibrillar polymer composites. It offers updates on polymer solar battery development, plastics recycling and disposal methods, new concepts of "upcycling" and single-polymer composites, renewable synthetic polymers, biodegradable plastics and composites, and toxicity of plastics. The book also provides an overview of new developments in polymer applications in various fields including packaging, building and construction, corrosion prevention and control, automotive, aerospace applications, electrical and electronic applications, agriculture and horticulture, domestic appliances and business machines, medical and biomedical applications, marine and offshore applications, and sports.