Plastics Manufacturing Systems Engineering

Plastics manufacturing is a highly interdisciplinary endeavor requiring knowledge related to materials science, physics, engineering, and management. Because of this diversity, the plastics process engineer interacts with many stakeholders including customers, designers, materials suppliers, machine builders, mold/die suppliers, systems integrators, operators, quality engineers, managers, and others. With so many stakeholders involved, it isn't surprising that many plastics manufacturing processes are not precisely engineered systems. The resulting processes can be poorly designed, requiring too much investment to achieve too little productivity. This book was written to educate and support plastics processing engineers, but is also highly useful to others involved with plastics manufacturing who are performing process development, research, and even machinery design. A manufacturing systems engineering approach was used to provide guidance about plastics manufacturing as an integrated system with broadly applicable analysis of the underlying subsystems.

"Plastics manufacturing is a highly interdisciplinary endeavor requiring knowledge related to materials science, physics, engineering, and management. This book was written to educate and support plastics processing engineers, but is also highly useful to others involved with plastics manufacturing who are performing process development, research, and even machinery design"--Provided by publisher.

The plastics engineer working on the shop floor in a plastics manufacturing plant often needs quick answers to questions such as why the extruder output is low or whether he can expect better quality product by changing the resin or if the die pressure can be lowered. Applying state-of-the art numerical software to address these issues is time consuming and costly. Starting from practical design formulas that are easily applicable, and yet take the resin rheology into account, this book provides answers to these questions quickly and effectively by guiding the user step by step through the computational procedures on the basis of illustrative technical examples. Problems related to melt fracture, homogeneity of the melt, effect of screw geometry on the quality of the melt and the effect of die pressure on the pellet surface and their troubleshooting are only few of the topics among many that are dealt with in detail. All the calculations involved can be handled by pocket calculators and hence can be performed right on the site where the machines are running. This guide is a valuable tool not only to troubleshoot but also to estimate the effect of design and process parameters on the product quality in plastics processing.

This book reports on cutting-edge research and developments in manufacturing, giving a special emphasis to solutions fostering automation and sustainability. Topics cover manufacturing process optimization, remanufacturing, machines and mechanical design, CAD/CAM/CAE, materials characterization and processing, measurement and predictive maintenance techniques. Further topics include artificial intelligence and IoT in manufacturing, robotics, and cutting-edge issues in Industry 4.0/5.0. Based on proceedings of the 32nd edition of the International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing, FAIM 2023, held on June 18 – 22, 2023, in Porto, Portugal, this first volume of a 2-volume set provides academics and professionals with extensive, technical information on trends and technologies in manufacturing, yet it also discusses challenges and practice-oriented experience in all the above-mentioned areas.

This is the first comprehensive handbook emphasizing on the relationship between the assembly methods, the materials, and the plastics manufacturing processes, thus enabling the reader to identify the best design/assembly method for a given application. This "how to" book offers a great deal of hard-to-find detailed design information and a large number of unique illustrations.

A practical reference for all plastics engineers who are seeking to answer a question, solve a problem, reduce a cost, improve a design or fabrication process, or even venture into a new market. Applied Plastics Engineering Handbook covers both polymer basics - helpful to bring readers quickly up to speed if they are not familiar with a particular area of plastics processing - and recent developments - enabling practitioners to discover which options best fit their requirements. Each chapter is an authoritative source of practical advice for engineers, providing authoritative guidance from experts that will lead to cost savings and process improvements. Throughout the book, the focus is on the engineering aspects of producing and using plastics. The properties of plastics are explained along with techniques for testing, measuring, enhancing and analyzing them. Practical introductions to both core topics and new developments make this work equally valuable for newly qualified plastics engineers seeking the practical rules-of-thumb they don't teach you in school, and experienced practitioners evaluating new technologies or getting up to speed on a new field The depth and detail of the coverage of new developments enables engineers and managers to gain knowledge of, and evaluate, new technologies and materials in key growth areas such as biomaterials and nanotechnology This highly practical handbook is set apart from other references in the field, being written by engineers for an audience of engineers and providing a wealth of real-world examples, best practice guidance and rules-of-thumb

This handbook provides a framework for understanding how to characterize plastic manufacturing processes for use in troubleshooting problems. The 21 chapters are authored by well-known and experienced engineers who have specialized knowledge about the processes covered in this practical guide. From the Preface: “In every chapter, the process is described and the most common problems are discussed along with the root causes and potential technical solutions. Numerous case studies are provided that illustrate the troubleshooting process. Mark A. Spalding, The Dow Chemical Company

This book provides a simplified, practical, and innovative approach to understanding the design and manufacture of plastic products in the World of Plastics. The concise and comprehensive information defines and focuses on past, current, and future technical trends. The handbook reviews over 20,000 different subjects; and contains over 1,000 figures and more than 400 tables. Various plastic materials and their behavior patterns are reviewed. Examples are provided of different plastic products and relating to them critical factors that range from meeting performance requirements in different environments to reducing costs and targeting for zero defects. This book provides the reader with useful pertinent information readily available as summarized in the Table of Contents, List of References and the Index.