Common Polymer Review

Commodities

100

Polypropylene materials come on different variants, including random copolymer, copolymer, and what?

Homopolymer

200

What is a common application for polypropylene materials? (Think unique to PP)

Living hinge

300

What is the reason for PE to have different density variations? 

The branching off the backbone

400

Polystyrene is available in what additional forms?

EPS & SPS

500

Iceless skating rinks are made out of what material?

UHMWPE

Engineering

100

What does ABS stand for?

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene

200

How is transparent ABS made? (What is changed to allow for the transparency?)

Methyl methacrylate is added to the SAN matrix to align the refractive index with butadiene

300

Name 2 of the 3 materials we sell that contain BPA?

PC, PSU, and/or PEI

400

What is critical thickness?

Part thickness at which it is too thick to allow for good impact performance (especially for PC)

500

Name 3 short chain and 2 long chain polyamides

PA 4/6, 6, 6/6

PA 10, 12, 6/10, 6/12

Specialty

100

What does LCP stand for?

Liquid crystal[line] polymer

200

What LOI value is considered self-extinguishing and why?

30%+ and because we have on average 22% oxygen in our atmosphere

300

What does FST mean?

Flame, smoke, and toxicity - for aerospace or rail applications

400

What is the shrinkage of ULTEM 1000?

0.005-0.007 in/in

500

PEEK has 1 solvent at room temperature, what is it?

High concentrated sulfuric acid