Design and Manufacture of Plastic Components for Multifunctionality: Structural Composites, Injection Molding, and 3D Printing

Design and Manufacture of Plastic Components for Multifunctionality: Structural Composites, Injection Molding, and 3D Printing presents the latest information on how plastics manufacturers are increasingly being driven towards carbon emission reduction, lightweighting, and cost savings through process integration.

These technologies have the potential to revolutionize future products with built-in functionality such as sensors, smart packaging, and damage detection technology for everything from milk bottles and salad packaging to automotive bumpers and plane fuselages.

This book introduces the three core manufacturing methods for multifunctional materials, composites, injection molding, and 3D printing, all processes facing challenges for the implementation of new technology.

Users will find a book that brings together both process and material advances in this area, giving process engineers, designers, and manufacturers the information they need to choose the appropriate material and process for the product they are developing.

• Provides an introduction to the latest technologies in the area of multifunctionality, enabling engineers to implement new breakthroughs in their own businesses
• Gives an understanding of the processes that need to be considered in both design and manufacture of future devices, while using materials from a broader palette than used in existing manufacturing processes
• Includes best practice guidance and flow charts to aid in material and process selection
• Covers revolutionary future products with built-in functionality such as sensors, smart packaging, and damage detection technology for everything from milk bottles and salad packaging to automotive bumpers and plane fuselages

Principal Research Fellow at the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), a department at the University of Warwick providing research, education and knowledge transfer in engineering, manufacturing and technology. Her areas of specialism are plastics materials, their processing and recycling, and she has undertaken many research projects in these areas - most recently looking at multifunctional materials. She - like WMG - works at the interface of academia and industry.

She has edited two books under the Woodhead imprint:

Management, Recycling and Reuse of Waste Composites (2009)

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Handbook (2012)