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Preface

This book focuses on plastics process analysis, instrumentation, and control. Here, the subject of process analysis, instrumentation and control for modern manufacturing in the plastics industry are detailed.

Process analysis is the starting point since plastics processing is different from processing of metals, ceramics, and other materials. Plastics materials show unique behavior in terms of heat transfer, fluid flow, viscoelastic behavior, and a dependence of the previous time, temperature and shear history which determines how the material responds during processing and its end use. Many of the manufacturing processes are continuous or cyclical in nature. The systems are flow systems in which the process variables, such as time, temperature, position, melt and hydraulic pressure, must be controlled to achieve a satisfactory product which is typically specified by critical dimensions and physical properties which vary with the processing conditions. Instrumentation has to be selected so that it survives the harsh manufacturing environment of high pressures, temperatures and shear rates, and yet it has to have a fast response to measure the process dynamics. Many times the measurements have to be in a non-contact mode so as not to disturb the melt or the finished product. Plastics resins are reactive systems. The resins will degrade if the process conditions are not controlled. Analysis of the process allows one to strategize how to minimize degradation and optimize end-use properties.

The main goal of the book is to cover the field of automatic process control and instrumentation for plastics processing and also the new topics of statistical process control and process monitoring, which are required to document good manufacturing practices.

The text focuses on the literature of the past decade. Beyond education, this book will serve the needs of industry engineers and specialists who have only a passing knowledge of the plastics and composites industries but need to know more.

How to Use This Book

Utmost care has been taken to present reliable data. Because of the vast variety of material presented here, however, the text cannot be complete in all aspects, and it is recommended that the reader study the original literature for more complete information.

The reader should be aware that mostly US patents have been cited where available, but not the corresponding equivalent patents in other countries. For this reason, the author cannot assume responsibility for the completeness, validity or consequences of the use of the material presented herein. Every attempt has been made to identify trademarks; however, there were some that the author was unable to locate.

Index

There are three indices: an index of acronyms, an index of chemicals, and a general index. In the index of chemicals, compounds that occur extensively, e.g., “acetone,” are not included at every occurrence, but rather when they appear in an important context.

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to our university librarians, Dr. Christian Hasenhüttl, Margit Keshmiri, Friedrich Scheer, Christian Slamenik, Renate Tschabuschnig, and Elisabeth Groß for support in literature acquisition. I also want to express my gratitude to all the scientists who have carefully published their results concerning the topics dealt with herein. This book could not have been otherwise compiled.

Last, but not least, I want to thank the publisher, Martin Scrivener, for his abiding interest and help in the preparation of the text. In addition, my thanks go to Jean Markovic, who made the final copyedit with utmost care.

Johannes Fink

Leoben, 10th November 2020