Integrated undergraduate polymer technology laboratory

Abstract

The paper describes an integrated polymer laboratory, a one-semester senior/first-year graduate level chemical engineering laboratory, designed to provide students with an experience that parallels process and product development in industry. A unique feature of the "integrated" laboratory experience is that students synthesize resins which are used in subsequent experiments. Hence, students gain first-hand experience of the inter-relationships between the various steps of product/process development. Experiments designed and tested include polymer identification, polymer synthesis, polymer rheology, polymer fabrication and mechanical testing and morphology characterization. The polymer identification experiment is designed to introduce students to structure-property relationships. Solution, suspension and/or bulk polymerization are investigated in the polymer synthesis laboratory. The resin produced in this experiment is then used in subsequent experiments. Melt viscosity is studied in the polymer rheology laboratory. A 33 ton injection molding machine is then used to fabricate test specimens and to attain and understanding of process variables in the polymer fabrication laboratory. A torque rheometer is also used to study process variables. Finally, students analyse the test specimens obtained from the resin they synthesized utilizing a servo-hydraulic test system, a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer and a scanning electron microscope.