MAKING THE MOST OF PLASTICS IN YOUR COLLECTION

Workshop organised by the Plastics SSN Steering Group in partnership with Modern Materials in Collections: Scotland

Milestones in the development and use of plastics

Colin S. Hindle CEng CSci FIMMM

Senior Member of the Society of Plastics Engineers

Plastics – what are they?

• Plas+tic ('plaestik) n. 1. any one of a large number of synthetic usually organic materials that have a polymeric structure and can be moulded when soft and then set, esp. such a material in a finished state containing plasticizer, stabilizer, filler, pigments, etc. Plastics are classified as thermosetting (such as Bakelite) or thermoplastic (such as PVC) and are used in the manufacture of many articles and in coatings, artificial fibres, etc.

Plastics – what are they?• Compare resin (sense 2). —adj. 2. made of plastic.

3. easily influenced; impressionable: the plastic minds of chil dren. 4. capable of being moulded or formed. 5. Fine arts. a. of or relating to moulding or modelling: the plastic arts. b. produced or apparently produced by moulding: the plastic draperies of Giotto's figures. 6. having the power to form or influence: the plastic forces of the imagination. 7. Biology. of or relating to any formative process; able to change, develop, or grow: plastic tissues. 8. of or relating to plastic surgery. 9. Slang. superficially attractive yet unoriginal or artificial: plastic food. [C17: from Latin plasticus relating to moulding, from Greek plastikos, from plassein to form] —'plas+ti+cal+ly adv.

Plastics – what are they?• Compare resin (sense 2). —adj. 2. made of plastic.

3. easily influenced; impressionable: the plastic minds of chil dren. 4. capable of being moulded or formed. 5. Fine arts. a. of or relating to moulding or modelling: the plastic arts. b. produced or apparently produced by moulding: the plastic draperies of Giotto's figures. 6. having the power to form or influence: the plastic forces of the imagination. 7. Biology. of or relating to any formative process; able to change, develop, or grow: plastic tissues. 8. of or relating to plastic surgery. 9. Slang. superficially attractive yet unoriginal or artificial: plastic food. [C17: from Latin plasticus relating to moulding, from Greek plastikos, from plassein to form] —'plas+ti+cal+ly adv.

Horn – natural plastic

Horn has been used for generations to make useful food containers:

•Unbreakable

•Hygenic ?

•Biodegradable

•Tactile, non slip

•Uses local materials

•Cheap

Source : Edinburgh Castle Prison

A few items from the Horners’ collection

Horn was the first plastic for containers and transparent covers

and it is thermoplastic

19th Century double ended medicine spoon and narrow beakers marked

with Fluid ounces. Translucent horn.

From the Horners collection

Natural Rubber

• Charles Macintosh in Glasgow discoved naphtha a really good solvent for natural rubber.

• He spreads rubber solution onto fabric and then finishes with a second fabric on top.

• The raincoats are hard in cold winters and sticky in hot summers.

1823

MACINTOSH

Natural Ruber

• Charles Goodyear is hired by small rubber company in Woburn, Massachusetts to help them solve the problem of making a temperature-stable rubber.

• He tries many things that don’t work, including mixing rubber with sulphur, until it is accidentally left on a hot stove.

• Vulcanisation from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metal working

1839

GOODYEAR

Hard rubber - Thomas Hancock

• Vulcanite or ebonite

1843

HANCOCK

GUTTA-PERCHA• Native tree in Malasia produces a latex very

similar to Natural Rubber but hard and can be softened in hot water.

• Uses included:– stoppers for soda water bottles– submarine telegraph cables – not replaced

until polyethylene came along.– Dentistry – Golf balls "guttie" (solid gutta-percha)

introduced in 1848 replaced “featherie”

1843

MONTGOMERIE

Featherie (c. 1400)

Guttie (c. 1860)

Hammered Guttie (c. 1870-80)

Bramble Pattern (c. 1890)

Early Dimple Pattern

Robert William Thomson 1822-1873

• Stonehaven’s most famous son was the eleventh child of the town’s wealthy mill owner, and he invented :

• "an elastic bearing for the purpose of lessening the power required to draw carriages, rendering their motion easier and diminishing the noise they make when in motion".

• We recognise this as the world’s first pneumatic tyre.

• Unfortunatley it failed due to:– the high load of a horse drawn carriage;

– the poor state of roads at the time (before the car);

– poor rubber technology of the day.

1845

THOMSON

Pneumatic Tyre• John Boyd Dunlop, a veterinary surgeon, born

in Scotland but living in Belfast makes a set of pneumatic tyres for his son’s tricycle.

• He established what would become the Dunlop Rubber Company but had to fight and win a legal battle with Thomson.

• Dunlop sold the patent and company name early on. Despite Thomson's earlier work, Dunlop is credited with the invention of the modern rubber

tyre.

1888

DUNLOP

Dunlop reinvents the pneumatic tyre forty-three years later.

Shellac• natural polymer secreted by a

southeast Asian beetle), • Excellent quality of moulding

detail leads to:• 78 rpm records

– 25% "shellac“, cotton filler, powdered slate, and a small amount of a wax lubricant

1839

CRITCHLOW

Bois Durci• François Charles Lepage patented a

plastics material composed of sawdust and blood albumen which he named Bois Durci (" hardened wood").

• This was compression moulded under pressure and steam heat.

• Bois Durci mouldings were exhibited at the international exhibitions in London in 1862 and Paris in 1867.

• Bois Durci moulding continued until about 1920, when it was superseded by newer plastics materials, such as bakelite.

1855

LEPAGE

Parkesine• Colourful plastics were

displayed for the first time at the 1862 London International Exhibition.

• Parkesine was based on cellulose nitrate.

• Alexander Parkes anticipated many of the uses for which plastics have since been employed.

• In 1866, the Parkesine Company was established but within two years it was in liquidation.

1862

PARKES

Celluloid• John Wesley Hyatt discovered the use of

heat and pressure in making camphor a plasticiser for cellulose nitrate.

• This minimised the need for additional solvent and eliminated most of the problems associated with the much larger quantity of volatile solvent used by his predecessors

• 1870 Hyatt and his brother set up the Albany Dental Plate Company to manufacture dental plate blanks from the new material which they called Celluloid.

• 1871 the Celluloid Manufacturing Company • Developed machinery for working the new

material - his 'stuffing machine' was a forerunner of injection moulding.

1870

HYATT

Celluloid Film• Hannibal Williston Goodwin experimented

with cellulose nitrate as a less fragile material than glass for making lantern slides and in 1887 the filed a patent but it was not granted until 13 September 1898.

• In the meantime, George Eastman had already started production of roll-film using his own process.

• In 1900, Goodwin set up the Goodwin Film & Camera Co. but before film production had started he was killed in an accident.

• His patent was sold to Ansco who successfully sued Eastman Kodak for infringement of the patent and were awarded $5,000,000.

1887

GOODWIN

Casein• Casein (protein in milk) used by the

Ancient Egyptians as a fixative for pigments in wall paintings.

• Also used in glues but not as a solid plastics material until the end of the 19th century.

• 1899 patent for "plastic compositions" was taken out in Germany.

• Casein plastics were manufactured from 1899 under the trade-name Galalith and exhibited at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900.

• The ‘dry process’ was universally adopted and remained largely unchanged.

• Erinoid in Stroud, Gloucestershire.

1899

KUNTH

Bakelite• Leo Hendrick Baekeland’s patent of 18

February 1907 described the first truly synthetic resin – Bakelite

• ‘The material of a thousand uses'.• Phenolic resins, moulding powders, laminates,

varnishes, adhesives and lacquers were among the important products resulting from his discovery.

• 1910 to market Bakelite he formed the General Bakelite Company in the USA and arranged for licensees in other parts of the world.

• ‘The father of the plastics industry'

1907

BAEKELAND

Bakelite - ‘the material of a thousand uses'

Sir James Swinburne• James Swinburne b. Inverness on 28 February 1858. • Interested in the potential of plastics in 1902 when he

was introduced to a product of the phenol formaldehyde reaction.

• Formed Fireproof Celluloid Syndicate Limited, unable to produce a moulding material, they were able to make an excellent hard lacquer for coating metals such as brass.

• 1910 transferred to Damard Lacquer Company Ltd.• Swinburne’s patent filed 1 day after Leo Baekeland.• 1927, Swinburne and Baekeland formed a new

company, Bakelite Limited, to exploit Baekeland's products in the UK and elsewhere.

• Sir James Swinburne was appointed its first Chairman and production began in Tyseley, Birmingham.

1910

SWINBURNE

Hermann Staudinger

• Hermann Staudinger (1881 - 1965) • German chemist who demonstrated the

existence of macromolecules or polymers. • Staudinger proposed in a landmark paper

published in 1920 that rubber and other polymeric substances such as starch, cellulose and proteins are long chains of short repeating molecular units linked by covalent bonds.

• He spent much of his life proving this concept.

• Received the 1953 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

1920

STAUDINGER

1930’s - Birth of Thermoplastics

• 1929 Polystyrene - IG Farben• 1930 Polyamides - Carothers - DuPont• 1932 Polymethylmethacrylate - Crawford - I C I • 1933 Poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC_p) - Semon - B. F. Goodrich • 1933 Polyethylene (LDPE) - Gibson & Fawcett - ICI• 1938 Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) - Plunkett - Du Pont• 1939 Polyurethanes - Bayer - IG Farben• 1939 Epoxy Resin - Castan• 1940 Polyacrylonitrile - Du Pont

The Growth Years• 1941 Poly(ethylene terephthalate) – Whinfield & Dickson• 1943 Silicones – Kipping• 1953 Polyethylene (HDPE) – Ziegler• 1954 Polypropylene – Natta • 1958 Polycarbonate – Fox - GE• 1959 Acetal (POM) - McDonald - Du Pont • 1960 Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) - Du Pont• 1962 Polyimide - Du Pont• 1964 Poly(phenylene oxide) - General Electric• 1965 Polysulphone - Union Carbide• 1981 Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) – Rose – ICI• 1991 Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) “Biopol” - ICI

Commodity

Thermoplastics

Blends

PSUPESPEI

PVCPS HIPS

PMMA

ABS SAN ASA

PCPPE

PA6/6,6

PBT

POM

PPS

LCP

PP PP-EPDM

HD-PELD-PE

ASA

High PerformanceThermoplastics

PEK

PEEK

EngineeringThermoplastics

Amorphous Semi-Crystalline

Ultra High Performance

Organisation that can help

www.iom3.org/

www.4spe.org/

www.spra.org.uk/

www.horners.org.uk

www.bpf.co.uk

www.plastiquarian.com