Image from www.wishescollection.com Happy New Year and Best Wishes for a prosperous 2017. We will be back with more technical content on Monday, January 9.  We will continue with our series on Composites and Dr. Bob Humphreys will have a series on biopolymers that covers the various end of life scenarios such as recycle, compost, landfill, and incineration.  ... [Click to Continue...]

Time to pull out the annual picture of the “chemistree” for the Happy Holidays post. I would like to extend a heartfelt “thank you” to all of my dedicated readers.  I track the visitors and we have between 1200 to1500 visitors per week come to enjoy our content. I work hard to make sure we have highly technical content presented in concise and focused posts.  Now it’s ... [Click to Continue...]

Guest Post by Dr. Robert (Bob) Humphreys Anyone who shops at a supermarket or views commercials for food products or orders food delivery via a phone app should be familiar with the emphasis on fresh produce, healthy and gourmet beverages, preservative- and hormone-free meats, dairy products, and prepared foods, and labels that claim “zero additives”, “no added sugar or high ... [Click to Continue...]

This post will provide an overview of the thermoset resins used as the polymer matrix in typical composites.  The choice of the resin matrix is important in that it defines some of the critical composite properties such as toughness, moisture absorption, chemical resistance, weathering, permeability, compatibility and fiber wet-out, along with thermal and electrical ... [Click to Continue...]

In this introductory post, common reinforcements for composites will be presented.  This will serve to “set the table” for future discussions on prepregs, laminates and a wide range of fiber reinforced composites.  The choice of reinforcement is a critical factor when designing or selecting composite materials since in many applications, the properties of the composite are ... [Click to Continue...]