Facilities include machinery for injection molding of samples weighing a few grams to full-scale, automatic processing. The department, in conjunction with the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, runs a plastics manufacturing course in which students carry out a design project from conception to finished parts. The solid model is used to develop code for the computerized milling of the mold, and parts are produced using a prototype molder, similar to an injection molder. Finished parts are tested and data compared to the structural analysis and the mold-filling analysis.
Opportunity exists for the parts to be test marketed through campus outlets.
Plastics and polymeric materials are characterized through the use of mechanical testing facilities for static, dynamic, impact, and fatigue tests often as a function of temperature. Thermal properties are determined using a Perkin Elmer thermal analysis center with differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical analysis. Rheological properties are determined using an extruder, an Instron capillary rheometer, and melt-flow instruments. Chemical properties are determined using infrared spectroscopy and size exclusion chromatography. Micro-structure is determined using optical, electron, and atomic force microscopy.