Breaking the Mould: Strong Engineering Plastics Are One of the Fastest-growing Parts of the World's

These materials are the tough, strong plastics that are sold in low volumes and at high prices. Their characteristics can be changed relatively easily by altering manufacturing conditions or by mixing in other substances.

They include many types of plastic reinforced with glass or carbon fibres, for instance. These composite materials are being used increasingly in aircraft wings and in other products of the aerospace industry.

Engineering plastics are among the group of substances known as 'advanced materials'. This catch-all category also includes silicon-based electronic chemicals, novel metal alloys and strong, heat-resistant ceramics. Engineering plastics stand out largely because of the ease with which they can be used in established, straightforward manufacturing processes. This makes them appealing to production engineers: it is also one reason for the relatively high growth rate in their use. Consumption of these plastics is especially high in the car industry, where companies such as Ford, General Motors, Toyota, BMW and Volkswagen are using more of them to produce body panels, axles and smaller fittings, such as bumper parts and wing-mirror brackets.

Chemically, engineering plastics are similar to the ordinary plastic materials used in packaging and building products. Engineering plastics, which have annual sales worldwide of about $25 billion, add up to only a small part of the world's chemicals sector, which has revenues around 50 times as big. But for many of the world's giant chemicals groups, including BASF, Bayer and Hoechst of West Germany, ICI ...