This book contains analysis of reasons that cause products to fail. General methods of product failure evaluation give powerful tools in product improvement. Such methods, discussed in the book, include practical risk analysis, failure mode and effect analysis, preliminary hazard analysis, progressive failure analysis, fault tree analysis, mean time between failures, Wohler curves, finite element analysis, cohesive zone model, crack propagation kinetics, time-temperature collectives, quant...

Advances in Polyurethane Biomaterials brings together a thorough review of advances in the properties and applications of polyurethanes for biomedical applications. The first set of chapters in the book provides an important overview of the fundamentals of this material with chapters on properties and processing methods for polyurethane. Further sections cover significant uses such as their tissue engineering and vascular and drug delivery applications Written by an international team of l...

Dielectric Elastomers as Electromechanical Transducers provides a comprehensive and updated insight into dielectric elastomers; one of the most promising classes of polymer-based smart materials and technologies. This technology can be used in a very broad range of applications, from robotics and automation to the biomedical field. The need for improved transducer performance has resulted in considerable efforts towards the development of devices relying on materials with intrinsic transdu...

This is the second of a two volume series of books about fluoroplastics. Volume 1 covers the non-melt processible homopolymers, requiring non-traditional processing techniques. Volume 2 is devoted to the melt-processible fluoropolymers, their polymerization and fabrication techniques including injection molding, wire, tube, and film extrusion, rotational molding, blow molding, compression molding, and transfer molding. Both a source of data and a reference, the properties, characteristics,...

Forensic Polymer Engineering: Why Polymer Products Fail in Service, Second Edition presents and explains the latest forensic engineering techniques used in the investigation of failed polymer materials that are illustrated with a very large number of detailed case studies which show the different types of failure and the forensic engineering techniques used in their investigation. In this updated edition, new case studies have been added to include patent disputes and failed products such ...

Textiles for Sportswear is an important book that systematically covers key trends in design and materials, the use of novel and smart fabrics, and a range of specific applications. The book begins by surveying the principles of textile applications in sport, including design, materials, and production technology. The uses of smart textiles in sportswear are then examined, from intelligent materials to wearable technology. Final sections of the text explore comfort in sportswear, sportswea...

With the rapid expansion of ink jet printing, textile printing and allied industries need to understand the principles underpinning this technology and how it is currently being successfully implemented into textile products. Considering the evolution of new print processes, technological development often involves a balance of research across different disciplines. Translating across the divide between scientific research and real-world engagement with this technology, this comprehensive ...

Polymeric Foams Structure–Property–Performance: A Design Guide is a response to the design challenges faced by engineers in a growing market with evolving standards, new regulations, and an ever-increasing variety of application types for polymeric foam. Bernard Obi, an author with wide experience in testing, characterizing, and applying polymer foams, approaches this emerging complexity with a practical design methodology that focuses on understanding the relationship between structure–pr...

The triggered release of functional compounds from such polymeric carriers as micelles, nanoparticles or nanogels is a rapidly developing and highly versatile concept which is expected to be one of the key approaches to future therapeutics. In his thesis, Daniel Klinger highlights the approach of stimuli-responsive microgels for such applications and discusses why especially light as a trigger has an outstanding position amongst the family of conventional stimuli. Based on these considerat...

This authoritative reference work provides a comprehensive review of the management, recycling and reuse of waste composites. These are issues which are of increasing importance due to the growing use of composites in many industries, increasingly strict legislation and concerns about disposal of composites by landfill or incineration.Part one discusses the management of waste composites and includes an introduction to composites recycling and a chapter on EU legislation for recycling wast...

A surge of new molding technologies is transforming plastics processing and material forms to the highly efficient, integrated manufacturing that will set industry standards in the early years of this century. This book is a survey of these technologies, putting them into context and accentuating opportunities. The relations among these technologies are analyzed in terms of products, materials, processing, and geometry.

Polymers exhibit a range of physical characteristics, from rubber-like elasticity to the glassy state. These particular properties are controlled at the molecular level by the mobility of the structural constituents. Remarkable changes in mobility can be witnessed with temperature, over narrow, well defined regions, termed relaxation processes. This is an important, unique phenomenon controlling polymer transition behaviour and is described here at an introductory level. The important type...