ACCRUTEK

Polymer Engineering Consultancy

Innovation Design Development

Injection moulding is one of the most important enabling technologies available to designers and manufacturers in all aspects of present day living.

 

With its origins at the end of the nineteenth century, this industry has evolved at an ever increasing pace to provide a vast range of materials with properties which meet the most demanding applications. Over the last thirty years, a wide range of polymer alloys, coupled with additives such as minerals, fire retardants, UV stabilisers and more recently nano particulates have become available to designers. The image of “plastics” being a “cheap and inferior” alternative to more traditional materials such as wood, metal, ceramic or glass has been replaced by an acknowledgement that polymers and their derivatives offer far superior performance in demanding situations.

 

Such performance includes corrosion resistance in the presence of water, self lubrication, electrical insulation and conductivity, optical properties and barrier properties in packaging. In practical terms, examples include in vitro applications such as heart valves and orthopaedic joint replacement, automotive applications allowing composite assemblies to replace complicated and expensive fabricated structures, miniaturisation in techtronics such as mobile phones, I-Pods and computers.

 

Miniaturisation now has even greater significance with the development of Micro and Nano moulding techniques where sub milligram components are being produced commercially.

 

Contact ACCRUTEK for more information on your particular interest.