Polymer

From polymers to pink flamingos and latex to LegosTM, the World of Plastics has forever shaped our lives. Since the 1860s, Plastic has transformed the way we work, play and live. -http://www.plasticsmuseum.com/h-main.html. Polymers also include the world of natural materials like wood, and cotton. Think about every type of polymer when doing your design, but in reality the engineering polymers will probably be your best bet. Don't forget to take notes on your Why pick my Materials Class? handout.

 lego block
LINKS
  1. http://fp.aleveldt.f9.co.uk/plastics.htm - A wonderful site from Deyes High School in Great Britian, makes polymers easy.
  2. http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/WofMatE/polymers.htm - A Web site from San Jose State, that will give you an overall picture of polymers.
  3. http://matse1.mse.uiuc.edu/%7Etw/polymers/ware.html - This Website from the University of Illinois has applications of plastcs (polymers).
  4. http://matse1.mse.uiuc.edu/%7Etw/polymers/prin.html - Also from the University of Illinois, this will give you the cold hard science facts.
  5. http://www.psrc.usm.edu/pslc/index.htm - An incredibly easy to follow page from the polymer science learning center - Try out How Polymers work.
  6. http://www.plasticsresource.com/plastics_101/basics/basics.html - Gives the basic chemistry behind polymers and talks about electrical and thermal properties.
  7. http://www.plasticsresource.com/plastics_101/basics/facts.html - Plastic facts.
  8. http://www.webelements.com/ -Web elements are important to learn specifics about different materials
  9. http://www.pct.edu/prep/ex.htm - pictures of polymers- may be useful in your final presentation.
  10. http://www.machinedesign.com/bde/materials/plastics/rvmat1b.html - May be hard to follow, but take what you can from it.
  11. http://www.dow.com/engineeringplastics/tech/guide/display.htm?guide=design - The Dow Company designing with plastics page, higher level, ignore if younger than 11th grade.

It is also important now that you've learned about polymers, to look at how their processed again. processing

composite

airplane Boeing's 777 jetliner is awesome, partly because of its lightweight composite materials, modern glass cockpit and flight control systems.(picture care of the NASA Web Site ).A composite material is made up of a matrix and a reinforcement phase. Composites take advantage of directional properties of the reinforcement phase and gluing properties of the matrix. The reinforcement phase may be any material in fiber, platelet, or aggregate form. The matrix phase must be able to flow around the reinforcement and later hardened. Metals, ceramics, cement, and polymers are all regularly used for man-made composites. Composites are very difficult to manufacture (except for concrete). New techniques has made it easier to make sporting equipment, space shuttle parts, and car parts out of composites. - from MaST Web Site

LINKS

  1. ht.://www.ccm.udel.edu/intro/composites.html- University of Delaware Composites page - very easy to understand and go through.
  2. http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/WofMatE/Composites.htm - A Web site from San Jose State, that will give you an overall picture of composites.
  3. http://depts.washington.edu/matseed/mse_resources/Webpage/definitions/def_composite.htm - MATSEED definition of composites.
  4. http://fp.aleveldt.f9.co.uk/composites.htm - A wonderful site from Deyes High School in Great Britian, that explains some stuff about composites, mostly wood and paper though.
  5. http://www.ccm.udel.edu/Techsite/Pages/World-of-composites.html - an everything to know about composites page, but you need shockwave. THere is a download on the page.
  6. http://www.calforests.org/economics/comparison.html - Wood as a viable materials choice.
  7. http://matse1.mse.uiuc.edu/%7Etw/comp/comp.html - just different videos of composites, but their fun to watch.
  8. http://matse1.mse.uiuc.edu/%7Etw/polymers/prin.html - Also from the University of Illinois, this will give you the cold hard science facts.
  9. http://www.lehigh.edu/~kpe2/contact/composites.htm - just the basics.
  10. http://www.allexperts.com/getexpert.asp?Category=2430 - write to experts about composites.

It is also important now that you've learned about composites, to look at how their processed again. processing

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