History and development of engineering resins

A brief perspective of the history and development of the plastics industry is outlined with special reference to engineering plastics and high performance resins. Since the birth of the synthetic plastics industry just over half a century ago, a myriad of polymeric structures have been created of which only a few generic types have attained commercial status. These basic resin types are combined in many ways as composites or blends to make available to industry over 6000 grades for use in fibers, films, coatings, adhesives, or molded shapes. Although plastics are characterized by their mechanical, electrical, chemical, or physical properties, it is their selling price that tends to dominate the volume production of each resin. Today, the modern plastics engineer employs remote‐access interactive computer databanks to conduct design and feasibility studies employing the full inventory of resin grades in his assessment. A final section reveals current attempts by researchers to impart extraordinary strength and modulus to conventional plastics by means of solid phase processing, whereby polymeric chains are uncoiled and aligned to produce remarkably tough materials which are likely to challenge the supremacy of steel.