Polymer Process Engineering

Book excerpt: Polymers are ubiquitous and pervasive in industry, science, and technology. These giant molecules have great significance not only in terms of products such as plastics, films, elastomers, fibers, adhesives, and coatings but also less ob viously though none the less importantly in many leading industries (aerospace, electronics, automotive, biomedical, etc.). Well over half the chemists and chem ical engineers who graduate in the United States will at some time work in the polymer industries. If the professionals working with polymers in the other in dustries are taken into account, the overall number swells to a much greater total. It is obvious that knowledge and understanding of polymers is essential for any engineer or scientist whose professional activities involve them with these macromolecules. Not too long ago, formal education relating to polymers was very limited, indeed, almost nonexistent. Speaking from a personal viewpoint, I can recall my first job after completing my Ph.D. The job with E.I. Du Pont de Nemours dealt with polymers, an area in which I had no university training. There were no courses in polymers offered at my alma mater. My experience, incidentally, was the rule and not the exception.