Engineering with polymers is a growing technical field which requires special knowledge. Filling a need, this ready reference brings together the hard-to-get and recently acquired knowledge usually only found scattered in the original literature. At the beginning, the reference introduces plastics as a class of technical materials, gives an overview of their properties, presents plastics processing and its possible influence on the achievable quality of plastic parts. Afterwards, plastics testing is presented as a separate, practical-scientific field of work. The possibilities and fields of application of plastics testing will be discussed. This is followed by a comprehensive treatment of the individual, relevant test areas for the characterization and qualification of plastics and plastic molded parts made from them, with descriptions of the corresponding, practical test methods. A comprehensive index provides easy access to relevant information for successful engineering with plastics and suitable methods for material characterization and for quality assurance and damage analysis of parts.

Written by experienced academics and industrial researchers and developers who know the problems of plastics engineers in their daily work - and the solutions - inside out, this book offers first-hand practical knowledge and intensive discussion. The book is aimed at industry, scientists and students involved in plastics and plastic engineering and aims to help them gain the necessary understanding of polymer materials and knowledge of practical testing and evaluation of plastics.

Achim Frick has obtained his academic degrees (MSc, PhD) from the University of Stuttgart, Germany. He spent several years in industry before taking up his present professorship at Aalen University. Professor Frick is Head of the Institute of Polymer Science and Processing (iPSP) and has authored more than eighty scientific papers and three book publications. Being also Head of the Polymer Engineering Transfer Center PETZ, he has served national and international industries with more than 400 material science reports. Since more than ten years he is also offering training courses to industry in polymer engineering subjects.
Claudia Stern has obtained her PhD from University of Twente, The Netherlands. Before taking up her present position as technical director at Intercable GmbH, Italy, she spent about 12 years in industry. Starting from being a senior scientist in Research & Development in the field of polymer engineering, she successfully builts up a new innovative business unit at ElringKlinger Kunststofftechnik GmbH, which she led for several years and thus became general manager at Schlemmer Group. She has authored several scientific publications and three books.
Vibunanthan Muralidharan obtained his Master of Science (M. Sc.) in Polymer Technology at the University of Aalen, Germany, after completing his Bachelor of Engineering (B. Eng.) in Mechanical Engineering in Chennai, India. He then went on to do research work in the field of polymer and rubber materials with a specialization on the dynamic behaviour of rubber materials, under the supervision of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Achim Frick for an extensive period of time. He presently holds the position of Testing and Process Optimization Engineer at Vorwerk Autotec GmbH in Wuppertal, Germany, where he is responsible for the testing and evaluation of various elastomer bushings and damping elements for automobiles.