Rapra Handbooks Aims and Scope Plastics, rubbers and polymer-based composites are encountered in almost every area of modern life. They have replaced paper and board, metals, wood, ceramics and glass and other natural and synthetic materials in countless applications. They have also enabled entirely new products to be developed.
Applications range from disposable packaging materials to permanent building materials.
There are polymeric components implanted in human bodies and functioning under the bonnet of your car. Such diverse applications clearly demand an extraordinary range of properties. They also depend upon a considerable number of processing technologies. As the range of applications of these materials has expanded so the need for clear informative reference works has also increased. Designers in almost every industry must now consider the opportunities for reducing weight or improving chemical resistance or mechanical properties that the appropriate selection of a polymeric material may offer.