High performance thermoplastics replace metals

High-performance polymers can successfully replace metals such as aluminium, titanium, copper, stainless steels and other special alloys because they offer a unique combination of mechanical, thermal and tribological properties, combined with excellent chemical resistance and electrical performance.
Several new polymer-based grades and compounds are available to optimize their mechanical properties.
These compounds allow the incorporation of a high rate of loads without penalizing the implementation. The loads used include short glass fibres, short carbon fibres, and high modulus carbon fibres.
Some grades offer a considerable increase in tensile strength and modulus compared to compounds charged with traditional fibres.
In addition, the constant need to withstand even higher temperatures has led to further innovations in
molecular level. These high temperature products are also available reinforced in glass and carbon fibres
for structural applications.

High-performance polymers offer engineers greater design freedom. The moulding allows to get rid of secondary recovery operations thus reducing the costs and the production time.
Facing the race for lightening, these polymers offer reliability and performance.