Design Like You Mean It: Ultrasonic Welding
The success of manufacturing and assembling of plastic parts depends heavily on the design of…
The Madison GroupJanuary 18, 2023
Testing Beats Talking for Manufacturing Problems
This article originally appeared in Appliance Manufacturer Magazine – March 2001. Failure analysis solves housing…
Jeffrey A. JansenJanuary 16, 2023
Yellowing of Polycarbonate
Because of the molecular structure of polycarbonate, the polymer is susceptible to yellowing through a…
Jeffrey A. JansenJanuary 16, 2023
Failure Analysis of an Outdoor Instrument Housing
This paper was originally published and presented at The Society of Plastics Engineers’ ANTEC in…
Jeffrey A. JansenJanuary 16, 2023
Fractography: Crack Features Can Change as the Crack Propagates
I completed a failure analysis on a safety clip, which had failed an impact test…
Jeffrey A. JansenJanuary 16, 2023
Polyurethanes: Where Rubber Meets the Road Part 3 – When Things Go Wrong
In the first two parts of this series, we examined the underlying chemistry and some…
Bruce Davis, Ph.D.January 16, 2023
Polyurethanes: Where Rubber Meets the Road – Part 2 – It’s Not All That Hard
Whenever polyurethane materials are discussed they tend to be categorized in terms of their hardness.…
Bruce Davis, Ph.D.January 16, 2023
The Importance of Properly Preparing Resins for Injection Molding
The power of polymers is in their molecular weight. It is critical that manufacturers not…
Melissa L. Kurtz, M.S.January 13, 2023
PVC Part 3: Failure
PVC boasts impressive performance characteristics, making it a go-to material for countless applications. However, like…
Javier Cruz, Ph.D.January 12, 2023
PVC Part 2: Processing
As previously discussed in Part 1, the mechanical performance of PVC is primarily controlled by…
Javier Cruz, Ph.D.January 12, 2023