Impact Modification of Engineering Plastics

Engineering plastics are a group of plastic materials that have better mechanical and/or thermal properties than more widely used commodity plastics, such as polystyrene, polypropylene and polyethylene. In general, they are produced in lower quantities than for high volume ends. Typical examples of engineering plastics include polycarbonate, polyamides and polysulfones.

Engineering plastics have gradually replaced traditional engineering materials, such as wood and metal, in many applications. In addition to equaling or surpassing them in weight/strength and other properties, engineering plastics are much easier to manufacture into complex shapes. In terms of properties, each engineering plastic usually has a unique combination of properties that make it the material of choice for some application. Among the properties exhibited by various engineering plastics are heat resistance, mechanical strength, rigidity and chemical stability.