Smart Blending Technology for Polymers Developed by Clemson University - News Item

Researchers at Clemson University have developed a “smart blending” process that could revolutionise the manufacture of plastics, as well as improving their performance.

The performance of most currently available polymers is limited by the machines used to produce them. Using smart blending techniques, the blending process could be optimised for a given application using a simple computer interface.

Most modern plastics consist of two or more plastics and additives. Smart blending arranges these components into functional internal shapes as small as 1/10,000^th the diameter of a human hair. This is important as it is these structures that determine the properties of the polymer or composite.

The researchers believe that the smart blending process can be used to control and optimise all manner of properties including toughness, electrical conductivity, porosity etc, with applications that could potentially benefit including plastic packaging, automotive polymers, light interactive plastics.

Interest in the technology is said to be strong following the publishing of initial findings in the journal Polymer Engineering and Science.

Posted September 12^th, 2003