Plastics as metal replacements
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• While chapters on "Material Selection" and "Plastics in the Motor Industry" are the only sections of Plastics as Metal Replacements, by Paul I. Smith, that are of direct interest to members of the motor industry, bodybuilders and vehicle operators, many of the applications covered in the remainder of the book are of related interest.
The first chapter, "Guide to Engineering Plastics" deals comprehensively and at length with the forms and properties of current types of plastics materials and "Material Selection" is a useful guide to material /application matching. Four chapters give details of moulding, machining, thermoforming and ex
truding plastics components and the remaining 13 chapters relate to applications in specific industries. Apart from the motor vehicle industry these include the building, packaging, electrical, chemical-engineering, domestic-appliance, aircraft, railway, precisioncomponent, agricultural, photographic and printing industries. There are also chapters on pipes and pipe systems and plastics for the marine engineer.
In a comment on the prospect of plastics materials in the motor industry the author has this to say: "For low production car bodies, heavy commercial cabs and specialized coachwork, such as tankers and buses, cabs for articulated vehicles, etc., there is no doubt that glass-reinforced plastics have a promising future, particularly if the new development in matched die mouldings using pre-preg materializes. This method is likely to be more acceptable to the motor industry than the use of preforms and wet resin. There is certainly great interest shown by the motor industry in the replacement of steel by glass-reinforced plastics, although most of the pioneer work by the motor industry is carried out in the USA."
The properties required for applications in the industry, including metal coating, are outlined in addition to proven and potential advantages of many types of material, The book is published by Scientific Publications {GB) Ltd., Broseley, Shropshire, at 65s. PACB