WINONA STATE UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING
CME 410: POLYMER PROCESSING
SPRING 2016

410 Polymer Processing – 3 S.H.

Chemical and physical properties of polymers, additives, mixing and compounding, rheology of polymer melts,
continuity, energy, and momentum equations, qualitative description and quantitative modeling of extrusion, blow
molding, thermoforming, injection molding, compression molding, and rotational molding processes. Environmental
aspects of polymers. Prerequisite: CME 350.

CLASS TIME: 9:00-9:50 MWF ROOM: ST B8

INSTRUCTOR: Fariborz PARSI
OFFICE: 203B ST, TEL: (507) 457-5282, FAX: (507) 457-5681
E-MAIL: fparsi@winona.edu
WEB: http://course1.winona.edu/fparsi
OFFICE HOURS: is posted by the office or see the web page.
TEXT: Plastics: Materials and Processes, A. Brent Strong, Third Edition, Pearson-Prentice Hall

COURSE EXPECTATIONS AND EVALUATION:

1. HOMEWORK will be assigned weekly. Each homework problem must have three sections of GIVEN,
REQUIRED, and SOLUTION and each problem should start on a separate page or clearly separated from
other problems. It is required that you use engineering pads for your homework.

2. PORTFOLIO: It is highly recommended that you keep a portfolio for this course.

4. EXAMS: Including the final test, you will have 4 exams in this course (see the calendar).

5. PROJECTS: Each group of students will be assigned 2 projects. The projects will focus on material
identification and flow simulation.

6. There will be a policy of NO MAKE UP WORK. If you have to miss an assigned work, you should
consult with the instructor prior to being absent or immediately after you return to class. Otherwise, it is
understood that you will get a grade of zero for that assignment.

7. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY: See https://www.winona.edu/sld/academicintegrity.asp

WSU STUDENT CODE OF CONDUCT: See https://www.winona.edu/sld/conductandcitizenship.asp

8. COMMUNICATION: Respectful professional communication is expected and highly valued.

9. COURSE EVALUATION

 Exam 1,2, 3 45% (15% each)

A 90-100
 Final exam 20% B 80-89
C 70-79
 Homework 10% D 60-69
F 50-59
 Projects 25%

o Mat. ID project-12%
o Design/simulation-13%
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 Mission, Objectives, and Outcomes of the Composite Materials Engineering Department

The mission of the CME program is “To develop creative minds and innovation in the field of
composite materials through education, applied research, and scholarly pursuits in collaboration
with the composites industry and community.”

The Educational Objectives of the CME Program are to prepare graduates to become engineers
who:
1. Apply their knowledge and expertise to develop innovative and effective solutions for
the composites industry.
2. Communicate and work effectively in diverse environments.
3. Grow and develop professionally.

The student outcomes of the CME program are demonstrated by students who have attained:

1. an understanding of the fundamentals of mathematics, science, and engineering science

and their application in engineering. *
2. the ability to identify, formulate, model and solve engineering problems.*
3. the ability to use state-of-the-art engineering tools (experimental, computational, and
statistical) necessary to select, analyze, design, fabricate, and test materials. *
4. the ability to design and conduct experiments as well as to analyze and interpret data
related to structure, properties, processing, and performance of materials.
5. the theoretical knowledge and hands-on ability to confidently design components,
systems, and processes to meet the needs of the composites industry within a set of
realistic constraints including economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health
and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability.
6. the ability to communicate effectively in oral, written and visual forms.
7. the ability to work effectively in a team environment. *
8. an understanding of the proper response to ethical issues and their responsibility to the
engineering profession.
9. an understanding of the impact of their engineering decisions in a global, economic,
environmental, and societal context.*
10. knowledge of contemporary issues.
11. recognition of the importance of sustaining this knowledge through life-long learning.

* Course will address this outcome.

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 STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOME
ENGR 410-Polymer Processing

You must demonstrate your ability to:

I. Explain introductory concepts regarding the applications, classification, history, and economic
impact of plastics industry
1. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of plastic parts.
2. Give a brief overview of the economic trends of local, regional, national, and international
plastics industry.
3. Describe a brief overview of the history of plastics and plastics industry.
4. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of thermoset and thermoplastic materials.
5. Classify the polymers by molecular characteristics such as chain length, molecular weight,
and molecular weight distribution.
6. Classify the commercially available thermoplastic materials.
7. Explain the various methods for plastics identification.

II. Describe the various morphologies of polymers and relate them to selected material properties
8. Describe the morphology of polymers and their associated advantages, disadvantages, and its
relationship to various properties of polymers.

III. Describe the functionality of various additives, fillers, and reinforcements

9. Name and briefly describe the various additives (including colorants) that are commonly used
to modify the properties of polymers.
10. Name and briefly explain the fillers and reinforcements that are commonly used to modify
the properties of polymers.

IV. Define selected thermo-physical, chemical, melt and flow properties of polymers
11. Thermo-mechanical properties: Define density, glass transition temperature, stress-strain
behavior, creep, impact, toughness, hardness, tensile, compressive, shear, flex, viscoelasticity,
heat distortion temperature (HDT), Vicat softening point, CTE, and thermal conductivity of
properties of solid plastics.
12. Chemical properties: Define chemical resistivity, solubility, and permeability of polymers.
13. Melt properties: Define density, melting range, processing temperature, thermal
conductivity, CTE, and PVT behavior of polymer melts.
14. Melt flow properties: Define viscosity. Describe non-Newtonian behavior, power law
model, MFI, viscoelasticity, and viscosity measurement methods of polymer melts and
solutions.
15. Based on properties, describe a methodology for materials selection of polymers for specific
applications.

V. Describe goals, importance, techniques, and difficulties of mixing materials with polymers
16. Define the goals, importance, and difficulties of the mixing process of polymers.
17. Name and briefly describe the various mixing equipment used in plastics industry.

VI. Describe the extrusion process and conduct a mathematical modeling of the screw section
18. Describe the extrusion process, its various components and their features, critical operating
parameters, materials consideration, and the potential processing problems.
19. Conduct mathematical modeling of the screw section of the extrusion process.

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 20. Name and briefly describe the various extrusion based processes.

VII. Describe the injection molding process, conduct a mathematical model for flow of polymers in
a mold, and simulate the molding of parts utilizing the Moldflow software
21. Describe the injection molding process, its various components and their features, critical
operating parameters, materials consideration, and the potential processing problems.
22. Explain the important features of the part design for injection molding.
23. Conduct mathematical modeling of the flow of polymers in an injection mold.
24. Simulate the flow of polymers in an injection mold using the Moldflow software.

VIII. Describe the blow molding process

25. Describe the blow molding process, its various components and their features, critical
operating parameters, materials consideration, and the potential processing problems.

IX. Describe the thermoforming process

26. Describe the thermoforming process, its various components and their features, critical
operating parameters, materials consideration, and the potential processing problems

X. Describe the rotational molding process

27. Describe the rotational molding process, its various components and their features, critical
operating parameters, materials consideration, and the potential processing problems

XI. Describe the compression and transfer molding processes

28. Describe the compression and transfer molding process, its various components and their
features, critical operating parameters, materials consideration, and the potential processing
problems.

XII. Describe the wire coating processes and conduct mathematical a mathematical model for flow
of polymers in a wire coating die
29. Describe the wire coating process, its various components and their features, critical
operating parameters, materials consideration, and the potential processing problems.
30. Conduct mathematical modeling of the flow of polymers in a wire coating die

XIII. Other Processes

31. Briefly describe calendaring, blown film extrusion, casting, foaming, laminating, fiber
spinning, cast film extrusion, dipping, and … processes.

XIIII. Processing of nano-composites:

32. Describe the challenges associated with processing of polymers containing nano-sized
particles

XV. Environmental Aspects

33. Explain the environmental aspects of plastics and plastics processing.

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 CME 410: Tentative Course Calendar
WEEK CONTENT ASSESSMENT OUTCOM
E
Week 1 Introduction 1-5
1/11 Introductory materials (Chapter 1,2,3,7,8,9,10)
Assign Material ID project
Week 2 No Class on Monday (MLD Day) HC 1-W 5-7
1/18 Introductory materials (Chapter 1,2,3,7,8,9,10)
Plastic properties (Chapters 4,5)
Week 3 Plastic properties (Chapters 4,5) 7-11
1/25
Week 4 Plastic properties (Chapters 4,5) HC 2-M 11-15
2/1
Week 5 Mixing and Extrusion (Chapter 11) TEST 1-W 15-20
2/8
Week 6 Extrusion (Chapter 11) 15-20
2/15
Week 7 Extrusion (Chapter 11) HC 3-?? 16-20
2/22
Week 8 Injection molding (Chapter 12) HC4-?? 21-24
2/29 Assign Simulation Project
Week 9 SPRING BREAK
3/7
Week 10 Injection molding (Chapter 12) TEST 2-F 21-25
3/14 Blow molding (Chapter 13)
Week 11 Blow molding (Chapter 13) 25-26
3/21 Thermoforming (Chapter 14)
Week 12 Thermoforming (Chapter 14) HC 5-?? 26-27
3/28 Rotational molding (Chapter 15)
Week 13 Compression and transfer molding (Chapter 18) 27-29
4/4 Wire coating
Week 14 Wire coating TEST 3-W 29-30
4/11 Other processes (Chapters 16,17)
F-HOLIDAY
Week 15 Other processes (Chapters 16,17) 30-33
4/18 Environmental aspects (Chapter 23)
Week 16 Environmental aspects (Chapter 23) 33
4/25 Review
Week 17 FINAL EXAM, T (5/3) 8:00-10:00 AM 1-33
I reserve the right to change the calendar when necessary.

I have read and understood all of the above information.

Students Signature_____________________________ Date __________________