This article addresses some established protocols for characterizing thermoplastics and whether they are homogeneous resins, alloyed, or blended compositions or highly modified thermoplastic composites. It begins with a discussion on characterizing mechanical, rheological, and thermal properties of polymer. This is followed by a section describing molecular weight determination using viscosity measurements. Next, the article discusses the use of cone and plate and parallel plate geometries in melt rheology. It then reviews the processes involved in the analysis of thermoplastic resins by chromatography. Finally, the article covers three operations of thermoanalysis, namely differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, and thermomechanical testing.

This article provides practical information and data on property development in engineering plastics. It discusses the effects of composition on submolecular and higher-order structure and the influence of plasticizers, additives, and blowing agents. It examines stress-strain curves corresponding to soft-and-weak, soft-and-tough, hard-and-brittle, and hard-and-tough plastics and temperature-modulus plots representative of polymers with different degrees of crystallinity, cross-linking, and polarity. It explains how viscosity varies with shear rate in polymer melts and how processes align with various regions of the viscosity curve. It discusses the concept of shear sensitivity, the nature of viscoelastic properties, and the electrical, chemical, and optical properties of different plastics. It also reviews plastic processing operations, including extrusion, injection molding, and thermoforming, and addresses related considerations such as melt viscosity and melt strength, crystallization, orientation, die swell, melt fracture, shrinkage, molded-in stress, and polymer degradation.

Polymer materials are key building blocks of the modern world, commonly used in packaging, automobiles, building materials, electronics, telecommunications, and many other industries. These commercial applications of polymeric materials would not be possible without the use of additives. This article is divided into five sections: mechanical property modifiers, physical property modifiers, biological function modifiers, processing aids, and colorants. It describes three classes of additives that are used to inhibit biological activity, six classes of mechanical property modifiers, three classes of physical property modifiers, and two classes of both colorants and processing aids.

This article presents a brief discussion on the main applications for low- and high-viscosity polyalphaolefins (PAOs) and highlights key areas of interest and shows why PAOs are used in these applications. It discusses the physical properties of passenger car motor oils (PCMOs) based on or containing PAOs. The properties include Noack volatility and pour point. The article also discusses the properties and applications of heavy-duty engine oil (HDEO), industrial lubricants, food-grade lubricants, greases, transportation gear oils, compressor oils, hydraulic fluids, and transmission fluids.

This article discusses the influence of microstructure and chemical composition on the physical properties of cast iron. The physical properties include density, thermal expansion, thermal conductivity, specific heat, electrical conductivity, magnetic properties, and acoustic properties. The article describes the properties of liquid iron in terms of surface energy, contact angles, and viscosity. The conductive properties such as thermal and electrical conductivity, of the main metallographic phases present in cast iron are presented in a table. The article discusses the magnetic properties of cast iron in terms of magnetic intensity, magnetic induction, magnetic permeability, remanent magnetism, coercive force, and hysteresis loss. It concludes with a discussion on the acoustic properties of cast iron.

Polyaspartic coating technology has found utility in a variety of coating applications, including corrosion protection and flooring topcoats, as these coatings are based on aliphatic polyisocyanates and aliphatic diamines. This article describes the chemistry of polyaspartic esters and curing characteristics and performance properties of polyaspartic coatings. It also provides information on curing corrosion protection coating systems, polyaspartic floor coatings, and safe-use recommendations for handling isocyanates.

This article focuses on the basic turbulent flow, and the thermal, mass-transfer, and hydrodynamic phenomena for use in modeling physical processes during induction melting. It provides a discussion on transport phenomena equations that includes the approximation of convective terms in the transport equation and computational schemes for the fluid dynamics equation. The aspects of computational algorithms for specific magnetohydrodynamic problems with mutual influence of the magnetic field and melt flow due to the changing shape of the free surface are also considered. The article illustrates the application of the basic equations and approaches formulated for electromagnetic field and melt turbulent flow for the numerical study of an induction crucible furnace.

The measurement of thermophysical properties of metal alloys, especially at high temperatures, is difficult because of the reactivity of some alloys. This article reviews the methods available for measurement of thermal and other physical properties for liquid, semi-solid, and solid commercial alloys, including adiabatic calorimetry, modulated calorimetry, Calvet calorimetry, single-pan calorimetry, and drop calorimetry. It describes differential scanning calorimetry and differential temperature analysis for measuring transition temperatures such as phase transformation or glass transition temperatures. The article schematically illustrates the laser flash apparatus for measuring the thermal diffusivity of solids and oscillation viscometer for measurements of the viscosity of metals. A summary of the measurement methods is presented in tables.

This article presents typical values for the most used types of thermophysical property data that are needed for processing and modeling of solidification and casting processes. It describes methods to determine thermophysical properties, such as specific heat capacity and enthalpy of transformation; enthalpy of melting; solidus and liquidus temperatures; coefficient of thermal expansion; density; surface tension; viscosity; electrical and thermal conductivity; and emissivity.

There are several main sources of thermophysical property data that provide the most authoritative and comprehensive compilations of critically and systematically evaluated data that are presently available. This article provides thermophysical property data to assist in the materials properties selection for the simulation of casting processes. The measurements of thermophysical property are difficult due to high temperatures and the reactivity of some alloys. The article discusses the strategies adopted to minimize the effects of high temperatures and reactivity of alloys. It presents the thermophysical properties of pure metals and some commercial alloys and tabulates the enthalpy of fusion and solidus and liquidus temperatures for various alloys of commercial interest. The article also lists the density, thermal conductivity, surface tension, and viscosity for some commercial alloys.

Semisolid metal (SSM) processing is a special die casting process, where partially solidified metal slurry is injected into a die cavity to form die cast components. This article discusses the flow behavior of an SSM slurry with emphasis on viscosity, rheological behavior, and yield stress. It illustrates the microstructural formation of semisolids under forced convection. The article concludes with an illustration that compares two SSM processes, namely, thixocasting and rheocasting.

Forming processes can be divided into three major categories: bulk forming, sheet-metal forming, and semisolid forming and polymer extrusion. This article introduces each process category with a description of the constitutive models. It outlines the required properties for process modeling and describes the test methods for determining these properties. The article discusses several compression tests used to determine stress-strain curves for bulk forming and tensile tests used to obtain stress-strain curves for sheet-metal forming. The article concludes with information on the measurement of viscosity of semisolid alloy materials by using three types of viscometers: the coaxial cylinder viscometer, the cone-and-plate viscometer, and the capillary viscometer.

This article discusses the most fundamental building-block level, atomic level, molecular considerations, intermolecular structures, and supermolecular issues. It contains a table that shows the structures and lists the properties of selected commodity and engineering plastics. The article describes the effects of structure on thermal and mechanical properties. It reviews the chemical, optical, and electrical properties of engineering plastics and commodity plastics. An explanation of important physical properties, many of which are unique to polymers, is also included. The factors that must be considered when processing engineering thermoplastics are discussed. These include melt viscosity and melt strength; crystallization; orientation, die swell, shrinkage, and molded-in stress; polymer degradation; and polymer blends.

The effective integration of aluminum metal-matrix composites (Al-MMCs) into useful structures and devices often requires an understanding of the weldability of Al-MMCs that includes a thorough knowledge on the effects of various interactions between matrix and reinforcement. This article provides a detailed discussion on weldability and the effect of viscosity, chemical reactions, and solidification on weldability. It discusses different welding processes, namely, gas-tungsten arc welding, gas-metal arc welding, laser-beam welding, electron-beam welding, resistance welding, friction welding, transient liquid phase bonding, and capacitor discharge welding.