Polymer Selection Funnel Example - Back Seat Housing with Handles of A Motorbike (Transportation Market) incl. new Online Material Selector

Hello and welcome to another polymer material selection example using the Polymer Funnel methodology. 

In this post we discuss the selection of a back seat housing for motorbikes (exterior component). Figure 1 presents the four different stages of the material selection funnel and this overview serves us as a guideline. Figure 2 shows the example of a polymer based backseat housing with handles of a motorbike.

Figure 1: Polymer Selection Funnel with its four stages.

In general, what are some structural materials for exterior automotive applications?

Structural and semi-structural exterior components need to fulfil stringent requirements and aliphatic (PA 6, PA 6.6, PA6.10)- as well as semi-aromatic Polyamides such as PPA and PARA (MXD6) play an important role as materials for such parts. Polyesters such as PBT can be found in various semi-structural exterior applications too (e.g. mirror mounting brackets).

Figure 2: Example of the polymer-based back seat housing with handles.

Polymer material selection for exterior structural back seat housing- selecting the optimal plastic material

Funnel stage 1: Material selection factors

Central objective of Funnel stage 1 is the assessment of the requirements which needs to be fulfilled by the motorbike back seat housing material:

-Stiffness and strength (Young’s modulus min. 20 GPa at room temperature)

-No need of painting the part; it must be ready to be used after injection moulding

-it must have a metal-like haptic effect

-processing via injection moulding must be easy (good flow) and thicker sections must be possible too. 

-UV-stability over the part life time 

Now we can turn requirements into material selection factors and continue with stage 2. Table 1 summarises the important requirement information (requirement worksheet).

Table 1: Requirement worksheet of Funnel stage 1. 

Funnel stage 2: Decision on thermoplastic or thermoset

Analyzing the requirements leads us to the decision of continuing with the thermoplastic route over the thermoset route, since we need a stiff material with rigid properties. Among the thermoplastics, we have the option to select an amorphous polymer or a semi-crystalline polymer. Again, comparing the requirements, semi-crystalline polymers have very good stiffness and strength, good toughness and fatigue, low coefficient of friction making them suitable for applications exposed to heat, chemicals and wear. Such a material profile is needed in our application case. 

After some research i found the following grades: 

-PolyArylAmide (PARA-GF 50 wt%; UV-stabilized; Ixef® 1025; Solvay) 

-PA 6.6-GF 60 wt% (AKROMID® A3 GF 60 1 black; Akro Compounds)

-PA66 + PA6I/6T GF 60 wt% (AKROLOY® PA GF 60; Akro Compounds)

Funnel stage 3: Selection discussion with worksheet (qualitative matrix analysis)

The core of the Polymer Selection Funnel is the qualitative matrix analysis where we rank how good each of the materials can fulfil the requirements from step 1 (0 to 5=best), followed by secondly, assigning priorities to each of the requirements (0 to 5 = highest priority). Finally a multiplication of the requirement fulfilment with the priority is done and the values are added up for each material. 

Today I would like to introduce to you my new online POMS calculator which will make those steps for you. You can access the calculator over this link.

The result of the calculation can be seen in Figure 3. Ixef 1025 (PARA) reached 86 points, followed by AKROLOY® PA GF 60 (PA66 + PA6I/6T) with 68 points, and AKROMID® A3 GF 60 (PA 6.6) with 50 points. PARA offers high stiffness, low water uptake and the best surface appearance among all Polyamides. It is the combination of this unique property set which makes it the preferred choice for this application. If it would be an under -the-hood exterior application, the other two material options may be applied too. 

Table 3: Result of the qualitative matrix analysis using the new online POMS calculator. 

Funnel stage 4: Testing, selection of material and vendor

Now we have reached the testing and validating phase where we take the pre-selected grades from the outcome of Funnel step 3 and perform tests such as UV stability tests, endurance tests, as well as prototyping the part. Prototyping via semi-finished stock shapes or simple injection mould allows testing the different materials in the real application and drawing final conclusions. In our case, PARA could outperform the other materials in terms of surface appearance and metal-like haptics, which is favoured by the end-user. 

More polymer material selection examples can be found in my "start here" section. 

Polymer Material Selection Funnel Example - Baby Bottles (Consumer Packing Example)

Polymer Material Selection Funnel Example - Water Pipes for Plumbing (Building & Construction Example)

Polymer Selection Funnel Example - Vacuum Cleaner Canister and Canister Holding (Example Electronics Consumer Goods)

Polymer Selection Funnel Example - Yoga Mat (Example Sporting Goods Market)

Polymer Selection Funnel Example - Radar transparent plastics for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (Radar and Lidar)

Thanks for reading and #findoutaboutplastics!

Greetings

Herwig Juster

Interested to talk with me about your polymer material selection, sustainability, and part design needs - here you can contact me 

Interested in my monthly blog posts – then subscribe here and receive my high performance polymers knowledge matrix.

New to my Find Out About Plastics Blog – check out the start here section

My YouTube channel

My personal website

Literature:

[1] https://akro-plastic.com/productfilter/details/7723/

[2] https://www.solvay.com/en/brands/ixef-para

[3] https://www.solvay.com/en/brands/ixef-para/applications

[4] Polymer Material Selection: A practical guide on how to select polymers in a systematic way using the polymer material selection funnel method: https://www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/B0BSWM6BPD/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=2J7GJC06FKVU5&keywords=herwig+juster&qid=1695624594&sprefix=herwig+juste%2Caps%2C139&sr=8-1

Rule of Thumb in Polymer Engineering: Connection between Glass Transition and Melting Temperature of Amorphous Thermoplastics

Hello and welcome to this Rule of Thumb post. More Rule of Thumb posts in polymer engineering can be found here. 

Often there are situations where the information on the glass transition temperature is useful to have at hand e.g. during material selection process or processing. There are different ways to obtain such information. The most accurate way is by measuring it with analysis methods such as DSC, DMA, and TMA. 

However, there is an empirical way for a fast estimation of the Tg of amorphous polymers: starting by the melting temperature of the polymer and multiplying it by ⅔ and you obtain the glass transition temperature range (Figure 1). 

Figure 1: Rule of Thumb in polymer engineering - estimating the Tg from Tm.

Example PVC

Polyvinylchloride, PVC,  has a glass transition temperature of 338.15 K and melting point at 485.15 K. Applying the Tg=2/3Tm rule results in an estimated Tg of 320.19 K. The difference to the measured Tg with tools such as DSC is only 5%. As I mentioned before, it is a quick estimation tool and a certain deviation need to be kept in mind. 

If you have interest in the Tg of engineering and high performance polymers - I made an overview which can be found here. 

Conclusions

Altogether, this rule of thumb serves as a fast adjustment approach when you do not have the exact information at hand. However, it seems to have a good fit with most amorphous resins (Tg above the 2/3 and 1/3 line; Figure 2) and can only be restricted applied to certain amorphous (PVC, PS, PC as examples) and semi-crystalline polymers. Furthermore, this Tg/Tm Rule of Thumb was proposed 70 years ago by Raymond F. Boyer (thanks to Pawel for this input) and it is still considered valid for polymers having both symmetrical and unsymmetrical molecular structures. However, later studies have found the ratio to vary widely, though.

Figure 2: selected amorphous polymers with their Tg and Tm as well as 2/3 and 1/3 line.

Thanks for reading and #findoutaboutplastics

Greetings, 

Herwig Juster

Interested to talk with me about your polymer material selection, sustainability, and part design needs - here you can contact me 

Interested in my monthly blog posts – then subscribe here and receive my high performance polymers knowledge matrix.

New to my Find Out About Plastics Blog – check out the start here section

My YouTube channel

My personal website

Literature:

[1] https://plasticranger.com/what-is-the-glass-transition-temperature-of-plastics/#What_is_a_rule_of_thumb_relating_Tg_to_TM

[2] https://www.researchgate.net/figure/DSC-melting-temperature-of-pure-PMMA-and-Ash-PMMA-composites_tbl1_262474618#:~:text=The%20coal%20ash%2FPMMA%20composite,the%20polymer%20matrix.%20...

How Plastics Protect Our Climate and Environment: Insulating Materials

Hello and welcome to this blog post in which we discuss one of the many ways in which plastics protect our climate and environment: insulating materials.

Expandable polystyrene (EPS) and extruded polystyrene (XPS)

Most of us are familiar with the material of expandable polystyrene (EPS), commercially available under the brand Styropor [1]. Polystyrene (PS) uses styrene  as a monomer which is derived from benzene. Check out here an overview of PS i wrote in the past. Since it provides excellent thermal insulation properties as a foam it is used in many applications such as  thermal insulation plates for building and roofing, refrigerators and freezers, and industrial cold storage facilities. 

Thermal insulation of houses

The usage of 5 cm thick EPS insulation plates is already enough to reduce the heating effort of your house by half, resulting in saving around 1000 liters of oil per year which represents 2800 tons of CO2 emissions. Comparing the insulation effect of different construction materials, it can be shown that a 2 cm EPS layer has the same insulation effect as a 46 cm solid brick or 120 cm solid concrete (Figure 1). 

Figure 1: insulation performance of different building materials - 2 cm of EPS have the same effect as 120 cm of solid concrete [1].

Furthermore, recycling of Polystyrene is possible and EPS/XPS materials support climate protection in several ways: from saving heat energy leading to a CO2 reduction as well as sourcing the Polystyrene from renewable raw materials. Allover, polymer based materials are part of the solution of climate protection and not the problem. 

Thanks for reading and #findoutaboutplastics

Greetings, 

Herwig Juster

Interested to talk with me about your polymer material selection, sustainability, and part design needs - here you can contact me 

Interested in my monthly blog posts – then subscribe here and receive my high performance polymers knowledge matrix.

New to my Find Out About Plastics Blog – check out the start here section

My YouTube channel

My personal website

Literature:

[1] BASF - Creating chemistry issue 12 / 2023 

[2] https://www.chemicalsafetyfacts.org/chemicals/polystyrene/

[3] https://www.findoutaboutplastics.com/2017/04/my-top-5-commodity-plastics-for-medical_25.html