【正文】 India, Mexico, Hungary, and China. NYPRO, sponsor of UML’s ―Precision Injection Molding Laboratory‖, has annual sales that now top $800 million. This year, NYPRO will mold and assemble more than 6 billion plastic parts. That is one part for every man, woman, and child in the world. Mico Kaufman, a Tewksbury sculptor, is most famous for his traditional metal artwork. As a sculptor, his bronze artworks include the ―Homage to Women‖ and ―Indian Maiden‖ which are both located in Lowell. He is also well known for his Presidential Inaugural Metals, including those of Presidents Ford, Regan and Bush. Always on the lookout for new ideas, Mico found his next artistic medium — molten plastic. I finally felt that I had a medium, had the material, where only the imagination was the limit, he says. I was letting my hair down and doing something that I always wanted. Each type of plastic has a temper and personality of its own, so everything you do inspires you to do something more.― Over the past ten years, Mico has been creating plastic artwork in the laboratories of the Plastics Engineering Department at UML. The artwork is created by forming strips of molten plastic as it exits an ―extruder‖. Mico has produced more than 30 plastic sculptures including the one to the right. Mico Kaufman “Very Large” Part Injection Molding This HUSKY 8800 ton clamp injection molding machine is being used to mold ―thermoplastic‖ Jeep Wrangler174。F for an extended period of time. It is also inherently flame retardant and very lightweight. The bination of these properties make Ultem174。 and in this use alone has saved thousands of lives. In fact, Kevlar174。s most readily recognized and widely used materials: Kevlar174。 (PET) fabric, aluminized Mylar174。 is most widely known for its widespread use in nonstick cookware and as cable insulation but it is used in a wide variety of other unique applications. Teflon174。. PMMA is a very hard material and is actually more transparent than glass. This transparent thermoplastic was first used for applications that ranged from contact lenses to thermoformed aircraft canopies. It then became the material of choice for automotive tail light lenses due to its superior optical properties, where it is still used today. PMMA is also used in a wide variety of other applications including acrylic fibers, paints and coatings, and as a marble replacement for kitchen countertops. The process of Injection Molding involves injecting hot (melted) plastic into a closed mold cavity. Most early injection molding machines were imported from Europe. The IM machine shown below was one of the first US built machines and was manufactured by the HPM Corporation in Marion, OH. ( circa 1937) The . duPont de Nemours Company wanted to develop a synthetic fiber that could replace silk. Shortly thereafter, duPont scientists, led by Dr. Wallace H. Carothers, pulled the first long, strong, flexible strands of a synthetic polymer fiber out of a test tube. They realized immediately that this artificial fiber had properties similar and in many ways superior to natural fibers. The material, poly(hexamethylene adipamide), is more monly known as ―nylon 66‖. It was intoduced mercially in 1938. One of the earliest uses of nylon 66 fiber was for tooth brush bristles, previously made from animal (Chinese boar) bristles. During World War II, nylon was used for many applications including cargo parachutes, tire cord for bombers, glider tow ropes, flak jackets, mosquito ting, and jungle clothing. Dr. Wallace H. Carothers The first solution to molding ―larger‖ plastic parts was a molding machine with multiple injection units. This 1939 HPM injection molding machine had four injection units giving it a total shot capacity of 32 ounces. It was used to mold the ―very large‖ (for that time) automobile dash board parts shown above. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is an extremely versatile thermoplastic made by the condensation reaction of ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid. Discovered in 1941, PET was initially used for the production of synthetic textile fiber, know today as Dacron174。 pipe. The mercialization of PVC in 1927 is the direct result of research work that was conducted by Waldo Semon, a chemist working at the . Goodrich Rubber Company. While PVC was already known at the time, it had no mercial value since it could not be processed without degrading. Semon discovered that PVC could be melt processed without degrading if a high boiling point liquid ―plasticizer‖ was added to it. PVC formulations can be either rigid or flexible depending their plasticizer concentration. The very first applications for PVC included foul weather gear and electrical wire insulation. 1939: Wood TV Cabi 1948: Phenolic TV Cabi 1970: HIPS TV Cabi 20xx: HIPS TV Cabi Although polystyrene (PS) was unknowingly discovered by a German apothecary in 1839, it was not until 1930 that a scientist from the BASF Corporation developed a mercial process for the manufacture of PS. General purpose PS is a very transparent but fairly brittle thermoplastic. Shortly after its mercial introduction, other rubber modified or rubber toughened grades, known as high impact polystyrene (HIPS) were introduced. PS and HIPS are still widely today for items that range from razor cartridges to television cabis. Television cabis were initially wooden, then thermoset phenolic, followed by flame retardant HIPS that is still used today. Rohm and Haas was the first pany to market polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), better known as acrylic―. It was introduced mercially in 1937. Their tradename for this new thermoplastic was Plexiglas174。 did not occur until 1946. Teflon174。. This new thermoplastic offered a good ba