Plastics

Plastics What is Plastic? Plastic is a common name for Polymers: materials made of long strings of carbon and other elements. Each unit in a string is called a monomer, and is a chemical usually derived from oil. History on Plastics; The first man-made plastic was created by Alexander Parkes who publicly demonstrated it at the 1862 Great International Exhibition in London. The material called Parkesine was an organic material derived from cellulose that once heated could be moulded, and retained its shape when cooled. THERMOPLASTICS: soften with heat and harden with cooling. 1. Acrylic (Perspex) 2. Acrylo-nitrile (Nylon) 3. Polyethylene (Polythene) 4. Polypropylene 5. Poly Vinyl Acetate (PVA) 6. Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) 7. Polystyrene and ABS 8. PTFE (Teflon)

THERMOSETS: are cured or hardened by heat. 1. Bakelite 2. Epoxy 3. Melamine 4. Polyester 5. Polyurethane