Polymer processing : principles and design / Donald G. Baird, Dimitris I. Collias.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Fundamental concepts coupled with practical, step-by-step guidance

With its emphasis on core principles, this text equips readers with the skills and knowledge to design the many processes needed to safely and successfully manufacture thermoplastic parts. The first half of the text sets forth the general theory and concepts underlying polymer processing, such as the viscoelastic response of polymeric fluids and diffusion and mass transfer. Next, the text explores specific practical aspects of polymer processing, including mixing, extrusion dies, and post-die processing. By addressing a broad range of design issues and methods, the authors demonstrate how to solve most common processing problems.

This Second Edition of the highly acclaimed Polymer Processing has been thoroughly updated to reflect current polymer processing issues and practices. New areas of coverage include:

Micro-injection molding to produce objects weighing a fraction of a gram, such as miniature gears and biomedical devices New chapter dedicated to the recycling of thermoplastics and the processing of renewable polymers Life-cycle assessment, a systematic method for determining whether recycling is appropriate and which form of recycling is optimal Rheology of polymers containing fibers

Chapters feature problem sets, enabling readers to assess and reinforce their knowledge as they progress through the text. There are also special design problems throughout the text that reflect real-world polymer processing issues. A companion website features numerical subroutines as well as guidance for using MATLAB®, IMSL®, and Excel to solve the sample problems from the text. By providing both underlying theory and practical step-by-step guidance, Polymer Processing is recommended for students in chemical, mechanical, materials, and polymer engineering.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Baird and Collias write this reference for "chemical, mechanical and materials engineers who have been exposed to fluid mechanics, heat transfer and mass transfer." The book will need supplementary readings in polymers and in rheology to an effective resource. The presentation relies on prior knowledge normally presented in chemical engineering curricula and sometimes offered in other disciplines. The approach, that of an advanced rheologist, is seen in the assumption of incompressibility for polymer melts. Much of the book covers many applications of extruders and processes involving extruders, but it contains five pages on injection molding. The authors describe many very useful approaches to analysis of associated polymer processes including diffusion, crystallization, mixing, and some post-extruder processing, such as melt-spinning and film blowing. They do not give all possible solutions to problems but offer solutions that generally work. The accompanying disk contains a number of Fortran routines. Graduate through professional. J. G. Williams; Michigan Technological University