The hottest search for low-cost resin materials

Looking for low-cost resin materials

when we finally need to choose materials, concerns about the unknown future will certainly follow. In short, to choose a resin from more than 40000 brands today requires more than a superficial understanding of the resin family, properties, and data sheets. Not only that, more and more OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) begin to expect processors to find a material with the lowest price that meets the requirements of the application field

finding low-cost resin materials will never be a smooth road. When a specific material is planned to be used in the design process, it may experience countless failures and encounter a series of processing problems until a polymer, or even a polymer of the same gene family, replaces it. Millimetre changes in product properties such as density and modulus will have a huge impact. Changes in fillers or additives will also affect the characteristics of products in use

however, there is still pressure for processors to find low-cost materials

there is progress, but it is not perfect

in recent years, the selection process of resin materials has become more and more complex, resulting in the heating complexity of the system, because the number of resin brands expands rapidly like balloons. The data of some experts has become the city library with the least approval items, the highest political efficiency and the lowest administrative cost in Shandong Province, which proves this. Some experts' databases have stored more than 40000 kinds of materials, including all the best-selling products in the market, and people will always find more resins on the market. "

why are there so many resins? Resin suppliers constantly modify the properties of resins to seek new market opportunities, so a large number of new brands have been produced. In fact, this is the beauty of the plastic industry. They can almost meet the requirements of applications in a customized way

however, with the broadening of the selection range, there is a higher complexity. If you ask an old hand in the plastic industry, he may say that the choice of materials is not complicated. For experienced people, choice becomes intuition. But after companies cut staff, a large number of experts left the industry. Companies did not acquire this knowledge well

it should be admitted that distributors and main suppliers will provide support when choosing alternative materials, but the trap here is that their help is based on the materials they can provide. In other words, it is difficult for processors to obtain an objective view

for most processors, alternative polymers usually mean another resin in the same polymer family. Now the motherboard can be expanded everywhere, although the signal is more comprehensive to hear alternative low-cost resins, especially in Detroit. Automobile manufacturers continue to squeeze processors, taking away almost all the marginal profits, so processors have to find low-cost alternative materials. If the components are not redesigned, the most obvious choice is certainly in the same product family

performance conversion

when the search for low-cost raw materials begins to heat up, what guidelines should processors follow? They first need to understand the criteria that drive the choice. Usually, when the processor bids for a project, he already has the candidates for materials and distributors in mind. But there are other things to consider. Is it necessary to obtain approval, such as FDA's material license? What are the appropriate rules to guide the selection of materials? Such problems should be solved first before selecting materials. "

ides has encountered such processors, who say they need an alternative polymer with higher fluidity, and hope to use the same filler or additive as the existing materials. In most cases, they only pay attention to a few important properties when looking for alternative resins. This is quite dangerous, because the high fluidity material may interact with the filler or additive in a different way than the original resin. The method to solve the above problems is to deeply study the multi viewpoint data of various material properties

another view is that the replacement of materials usually requires the participation of an experienced designer, who can interpret material properties as the performance of machined parts. Although automated material selection tools do exist and simplify the work of countless designers and processors, it is risky to rely solely on those figures. For example, how do you convert the 10ft drop impact test on concrete into Izod notch impact strength data? In fact, there is no accurate method in this regard. Of course, it is often seen that processors get a technical specification saying that machined parts need high impact strength, but there is no accurate Izod number to tell them how high the strength is

some people also think that the biggest problem is that there is no clue where to find alternative materials. For example, from one HDPE to another HDPE with the same melt flow index, although it seems simple, it is not as straightforward as selecting data, and relevant design and processing problems must be considered at the same time

here is an example of material replacement failure: a manufacturer and processor agreed to change the material of the fuel tank of gardening tractors from one HDPE to another. The only difference in performance between the two is that the density is slightly different, but when testing the new fuel tank, it appears that the fuel tank is not bent like the original material, and fracture occurs

it is very small to express the change of density in words, but density does affect mechanical properties such as strength and hardness. Therefore, the change of material leads to the change of product performance in long-term operation. The figures on the data sheet represent the short-term performance at room temperature, rather than the long-term operation performance. In practice, the true yield point can be found only when the product breaks, so we need to know what will happen before this point

design assistance

in order to find the lowest price materials to meet the needs of a certain application field, processors usually have to ask for the help of product designers

if the processor undertakes the design at the same time, it should understand the relationship between material properties and application requirements. At this time, experienced designers can help complete the wonderful transformation between product performance requirements and material characteristics

there is no doubt that there is always choice and balance here. Never think that you can find a perfect material, because you must make a choice in performance

the highest requirement of the automotive industry is to meet a specific technical specification of the automotive manufacturer. Generally, the requirements put forward by designers are no more than six, and the range of performance is very wide. Processors can first find materials that can meet this range, and then determine which one to use according to the price

problems can be found as early as possible by using analysis tools. The global composite market of injection molding is expected to reach 39.1 billion US dollars. Analysis can help predict processing and performance problems such as warpage and stress cracking

some people also believe that there is no need to list more than three necessary performances, because it is necessary to judge whether some performances are necessary. For example, processors use $10/lb peek mainly because of its high temperature resistance, and also because it has some other unnecessary conditions. But after investigation, it was found that a few cents of phenolic resin can beautifully meet all requirements

in many cases, the selection of materials also has industry characteristics, so each industry views the selection of materials from different perspectives. For companies producing consumer goods, impact resistance and dielectric properties may be at the forefront of consideration. Medical devices must comply with a series of standards and specifications. Therefore, some experts said, "before making an alternative choice, we should fully consider the three main performance needs." (end)