[en] Chem Systems and the WEFA Group has developed a GDP outlook for the Asian economies. The difficulties involved in forecasting Asian demand for petrochemical products was stressed. As proof of that, prior to the current financial crisis, Asian demand for petrochemicals was booming. Double digit growth rates was predicted for demand in the ASEAN countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines) for the basic thermoplastic polymers, polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, and polyvinyl chloride. In actual fact, Asian demand for petrochemicals has fallen considerably, with many significant projects in the planning stages delayed or cancelled outright. Within the countries of ASEAN, the lost demand was predicted to be the worst during the 1997 to 1999 period. Access to China's markets was said to be critical to the continuing recovery of the ASEAN countries. The current five-year plan for China emphasizes investment in petrochemicals. South Korea is a major petrochemical supplier to northern China's downstream industries. The issues confronting Asian companies to deal with the current crisis in order to be well placed for market recovery were discussed. It was predicted that in the short to medium-term mergers and acquisitions will become more widespread in an effort to hasten the recovery of Asian industry. 4 tabs., 9 figs

[en] A process near-infrared (NIR) spectrophotometer was interfaced directly to a reactor by using a fiber optic bundle interactive immersion probe. This remote sensor configuration enables the production of polyurethanes to be monitored in real-time. A Beer's Law model was derived for the quantitative determination of isocyanate in the urethane polymerization reaction. Statistical process control was used to observe trends in the polymerization reaction

[en] Polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK) and a newly developed thermoplastic polyimide ''new-TPI'' were applied to carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) as a matrix resin. PEEK and new-TPI showed excellent resistance over 50 MGy to electron irradiation and the crosslinking proceeded predominantly by irradiation. The changes in mechanical properties induced by electron irradiation of the CFRP with the two resins were examined at various temperatures. The flexural strength and modulus measured at -196 and 25 degree C were scarcely affected up to 120 MGy and both the values measured at high temperature were increased with dose

[en] Short communication

[en] The use of active composite structures in high-volume applications requires novel robust manufacturing processes as well as specially adapted functional modules. The paper presents actual research results with regard to the process-immanent polarization of novel thermoplastic-compatible piezoceramic modules (TPM) during the consolidation process of active fibre-reinforced thermoplastic composite structures. In particular the influence of varying manufacture process parameters of a hot-press process on the polarization behaviour is investigated. The main principal objective is the purposeful utilization of process parameters for polarization support

[en] The use of fiber Bragg grating sensors embedded in hybrid composite laminates for simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature is proposed. The hybrid structure, formed by a pre-impregnated thermoset and thermoplastic composites, contains one single fiber Bragg grating embedded in each material, connected in series with each other. A different response is observed when the smart composite laminate is subjected to strain and to temperature. This is expected due to the distinct properties presented by each material. The rms deviation obtained for a temperature range between 20 and 60 °C is ± 0.97 °C and for a strain range from 0 to 1100 µε is ± 13.04 µε

[en] This report describes the work conducted under the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) (Nr. 260) between the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Autodesk, Inc. to develop and implement process models for injection-molded long-fiber thermoplastics (LFTs) in processing software packages. The structure of this report is organized as follows. After the Introduction Section (Section 1), Section 2 summarizes the current fiber orientation models developed for injection-molded short-fiber thermoplastics (SFTs). Section 3 provides an assessment of these models to determine their capabilities and limitations, and the developments needed for injection-molded LFTs. Section 4 then focuses on the development of a new fiber orientation model for LFTs. This model is termed the anisotropic rotary diffusion - reduced strain closure (ARD-RSC) model as it explores the concept of anisotropic rotary diffusion to capture the fiber-fiber interaction in long-fiber suspensions and uses the reduced strain closure method of Wang et al. to slow down the orientation kinetics in concentrated suspensions. In contrast to fiber orientation modeling, before this project, no standard model was developed to predict the fiber length distribution in molded fiber composites. Section 5 is therefore devoted to the development of a fiber length attrition model in the mold. Sections 6 and 7 address the implementations of the models in AMI, and the conclusions drawn from this work is presented in Section 8.

[en] Stochastic cellular structures are prevalent in nature and engineering materials alike. They are difficult to manipulate and study systematically and almost always contain imperfections. To design and characterize various degrees of imperfections in perfect periodic, stochastic and natural cellular structures, we fabricate a broad range of metallic glass cellular structures from perfectly periodic to highly stochastic by using a novel artificial microstructure approach based on thermoplastic replication of metallic glasses. For these cellular structures, precisely controlled imperfections are implemented and their effects on the mechanical response are evaluated. It is found that the mechanical performance of the periodic structures is generally superior to that of the stochastic structures. However, the stochastic structures experience a much higher tolerance to flaws than the periodic structure, especially in the plastic regime. The different flaw tolerance is explained by the stress distribution within the various structures, which leads to an overall 'strain-hardening' behavior of the stochastic structure compared to a 'strain-softening' behavior in the periodic structure. Our findings reveal how structure, 'strain-hardening' and flaw tolerance are microscopically related in structural materials

[en] Large vacuum vessels are employed downstream of fixed targets in High Energy Physics experiments to provide a long path for particles to transverse without interacting with air molecules. These vessels generally have a large aperture opening known as a open-quotes vacuum windowclose quotes which employs a thin membrane to preserve the vacuum environment yet allows the particles to pass through with a minimal effect on them. Several large windows have been built using a composite of Kevlar/Mylar including circular windows to a diameter of 96.5 cm and rectangular windows up to 193 cm x 86 cm. This paper describes the design, fabrication, testing and operating experience with these windows and relates the actual performance to theoretical predictions

[en] This research aims to develop capabilities in patterning micro-, nano- structures and devices using thermoplastics. Fundamental investigations are conducted using NEB-22 resist as the substrate material in the imprinting of micro- and nano- structures. Imprinting on 200 mm diameter wafers has been achieved with well acceptable uniformity. Features with linewidths down to 50 nm and uniformity with less than ±1% over an 8-inch wafer has been obtained. Micro gratings for optical sensing, nano-scaled channels and pillars for bio-related filtering have been manufactured