Today's KNOWLEDGE Share : A Guide to Microscopic Failure Analysis for Plastic Products

 Today's KNOWLEDGE Share

A Guide to Microscopic Failure Analysis for Plastic Products

When a plastic component fails by cracking, its fracture surface tells the story of how and why it broke if you know how to read it. This guide outlines key procedures and considerations for conducting failure analysis of plastic components through microscopic inspection, drawing on traditional fractography while emphasising the material-specific characteristics of polymers and plastics.

🔍 Key microscopic features in faulty plastic parts:

• Mirror Zone, Mist & Hackle: The classic brittle fracture "fingerprint" that points you directly to the origin.

• Conic Marks (Parabolas): Often the smoking gun, these curves point back to a initiating defect like a contaminant or void.

• Ductile Stretching & Fibrils: Tell-tale signs of overload and yielding.

• Fatigue Striations: Found under high magnification (often with SEM), they reveal a history of cyclic loading.

• Smooth, Featureless Brittle Surfaces: A red flag for Environmental Stress Cracking (ESC) or severe material embrittlement.

⚠️ The features above most often trace back to:

• Design: Stress concentrators.

• Manufacturing: Weld lines, voids, residual stress.

• Service: ESC, chemical attack, fatigue, creep.

🛠 A structured approach is critical to success:

• Gather the history (load, environment, timeline).

• Macroscopic examination to locate the origin.

• Microscopic journey from origin through propagation.

• SEM and stereomicroscope are the primary tools in the investigation.

• Material characterization (FTIR, DSC) to confirm the type of polymer.

Microscopic inspection remains a cornerstone of plastic failure analysis, providing critical evidence to pinpoint root causes and prevent future failures. What's your biggest challenge in diagnosing polymer cracking failures?

#FailureAnalysis #Fractography #plastics #RootCauseAnalysis #Microscopy #SEM

source : PolyEdge (Consulting)

Toray Develops PFAS-Free Flexible PPS Resin Combining Excellent Flame Retardancy and Heat Resistance for #CoolingPipes, Wiring Components, and Other Applications

Toray Industries, Inc., announced today that it has developed a high-performance flexible #polyphenylenesulfide (PPS) resin offering outstanding flame retardancy and heat resistance. The company believes that this is the world’s first PPS resin to simultaneously deliver these capabilities. The material is free of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), giving it a cost-reduction advantage over fluoropolymers.

Prospective applications include cooling pipes, fittings, fasteners, protective components, and electrical parts. It also contributes to reducing the number of parts and simplifying processes.

The rapid proliferation of electrified vehicles and data centers has made components and electrical equipment parts considerably more sophisticated and diverse. While fluoropolymers have dominated the market to date, demand for alternative materials is surging to avoid risks associated with tightening #PFASregulations and commensurate raw materials procurement challenges.

A flexible #PPS resin that Toray formulated with olefin elastomers has served in applications that harness its light weight and moldability. It has been technically challenging, however, to simultaneously deliver a flexibility, flame retardancy, and heat resistance comparable to that of fluorinated resins.

The new material thus incorporates #Toray’s innovative #NANOALLOY® (note 2) microstructure control technology. It finely disperses a new flexible component within PPS polymer to replace elastomers. The material’s flame retardancy corresponds to the V-0 (Vertical Burn) classification of UL94 (note 3). Global private safety company UL Solutions, Inc., created that highly regarded standard for safety of flammability of plastic materials for parts in devices and appliances testing. The material’s heat resistance and lightness greatly surpass the performance levels of conventional flexible PPS resins .

From January this year, Toray started supplying paid samples to customers for such applications as battery peripheral and semiconductor manufacturing equipment components. It will establish a mass production structure within fiscal 2026. While complying with PFAS regulations and enhancing functionality, we will deploy this advanced material, which is compatible with existing design technologies, across diverse applications demanding high temperatures and high reliability. These include cooling pipes and fasteners for electrified vehicles and data centers, peripheral components for batteries and inverters, and industrial piping and bundling components.

source : Toray

Strategic Entry into the Type IV Composite Cylinder Industry

Strategic Entry into the Type IV Composite Cylinder Industry

💪I am offering a one-hour paid virtual advisory session for professionals, project sponsors, and investors evaluating opportunities within the Type IV composite cylinder manufacturing sector.

💡 This session delivers a structured, executive-level overview covering:

• Capital expenditure (CAPEX) estimation, financial modeling, and techno-commercial feasibility assessment

• End-to-end project structuring and strategic implementation roadmap

• Technical risk assessment and critical project failure modes

• Global certification frameworks and regulatory compliance pathways (ISO, EN, DOT, PESO, etc.)

• Core engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain challenges

• Market intelligence: industry dynamics, competitive positioning, demand outlook, and growth drivers

✈️If you are conducting due diligence, planning market entry, or seeking clarity prior to capital deployment, I welcome you to connect and schedule a consultation.

Muthuramalingam Krishnan

The Polystyrene Recycling Alliance and R3vira Announce Collaboration to Expand Polystyrene Recycling in Mexico City

The Polystyrene Recycling Alliance (PSRA), a North American coalition advancing scalable polystyrene (PS) and expanded polystyrene (EPS) recycling solutions, today announced a new strategic collaboration with R3vira, a Mexico City-based organization committed to community-driven polystyrene recovery across Latin America’s largest metropolitan area. 

The collaboration supports PSRA’s broader mission to enable a more robust circular economy for polystyrene across North America. By investing in proven collection and processing systems, the initiative demonstrates how polystyrene can be recovered, recycled, and reused when infrastructure and end markets are in place.

The partnership will enable R3vira to double the collection capacity of its innovative “peque-ruta” (micro-route) system, from 12 to 24 active pathways, increasing recovery and recycling of high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) and expanded polystyrene (EPS) by 2026. 

“Expanding access to recycling is essential to enabling true circularity for polystyrene,” said Justin Riney, Chair of the Polystyrene Recycling Alliance. “This partnership with R3vira reflects the practical, infrastructure-focused solutions our coalition works to advance—solutions that meet communities where they are and demonstrate how polystyrene can be collected, recycled, and returned to the market as a valuable resource. By pairing strong end markets with innovative, community-based collection models, we’re showing that polystyrene can play a meaningful role in a more inclusive and scalable circular economy.

PSRA’s investment will specifically support critical infrastructure enhancements, including densification equipment, expanded warehouse facilities, and workforce development across all 16 boroughs of Mexico City, the largest city in North America. Through R3vira’s established partnership with Resirene, recovered materials will undergo complete closed-loop processing to produce FDA-approved recycled polystyrene resin for direct reintegration into new packaging applications.

“Partnering with the Polystyrene Recycling Alliance allows us to build on the collection systems we’ve developed over the past five years and take them to the next level,” said Martha Melesio, Founder and Director of R3vira. “With PSRA’s support, we can significantly increase polystyrene recovery volumes, strengthen reliable end-market pathways, and continue creating stable, local jobs tied directly to recycling operations across Mexico City. This collaboration demonstrates how circular economy solutions can deliver both environmental impact and economic opportunity at the community level.

source : Plastics Industry Association

Wickert presents a new thermoforming press for aircraft structural components

Wickert Machinenbau, a German company producing complex, fully automated systems integrated in its hydraulic presses, launches a new thermoforming press dedicated to the production of #aircraft structural components from #composite materials.

The machine operates in a semi-automated way, thus allowing reduced operators’ workloads as well as productivity gains of up to 80%, explains Wickert. It encompasses all production steps, from raw part loading and preheating to the actual pressing process and unloading. Once the prepared composite parts fed into the production process, the robot picks up a clamping frame and transports it to the infrared oven – equipped with two heating stations on two levels – for preheating. There, the part is heated to the required processing temperature within two minutes. Only the respective component geometry is preheated. Then, the robot removes the clamping frame with the preheated component from the oven and moves it to the press, where it is positioned. The actual pressing process, which takes about one minute, then takes place, after which the robot removes the part again.

A flexible, semi-automated and customisable process

In addition to productivity gains, the use of an industrial robot with a customisable handling system makes the process more flexible, enabling the manufacture of components of different sizes, up to 1,100 mm in length. Moreover, the use of magnetic clamping plates to fix tools significantly reduces setup times. The flexibility of the system enables operators to change recipes quickly and easily. It also facilitates data logging and the recording of component-specific process data, enabling complete traceability. All this enables to meet the strict requirements of the aviation industry. 

Wickert’s new thermoforming press is suitable for various types of composite materials used to build structural aircraft components, including carbon fibre-reinforced thermoplastics such as #polyphenylenesulfide (PPS) and #polyetheretherketone (PEEK). 

All presses are modular in design and customised with press forces between 20 and 100,000 kN. 

“The new press technology makes it possible to form components of varying sizes efficiently and with repeatable accuracy. This not only saves time, but also guarantees consistently high product quality,” emphasizes Steve Büchner, deputy marketing manager at #WickertMaschinenbau.

In the future, Wickert plans to offer a manufacturing process in which manual input and output are fully automated. In addition, the company is developing a concept allowing the clamping frame with the component to be positioned in the press at a freely definable angle for certain applications.

source: Wickert /www.Jeccomposites.com

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share : 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗚𝗲𝗶𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘃

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗚𝗲𝗶𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘃

When graphene comes up in conversation, the story usually starts in 2004, when Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov first isolated it in the lab for the first time, experimentally demonstrated its outstanding electronic properties, broke long-standing paradigms, and triggered a massive technological hype.

What is rarely mentioned is that graphene’s story is more than 𝟭𝟲𝟬 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗹𝗱. And even less known is that a single layer of graphite 𝗺𝗮𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘀 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝘀 𝟭𝟵𝟲𝟮.

To begin with, nearly two decades before the 2004 experiment, the term “𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘦” itself had already been coined. In 1986, Hans-Peter Boehm defined graphene as “𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘣𝘰𝘯 𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦.” At that time, the material was already well known and extensively studied, particularly by theoretical physicists.

Work in this area started as early as 1947, when Phillip R. Wallace calculated the electronic structure of a graphite monolayer, introducing its band model and providing the first theoretical description of its linear dispersion, the Dirac cones that later became iconic.

On the chemistry side, however, the foundations go back even further. It was 1859 when Benjamin Brodie oxidized graphite for the first time, laying out the groundwork for what we now call graphene oxide. This chemistry was refined over decades by scientists such as Staudenmaier in 1898 and Hummers & Offeman in 1958.

Graphite oxidation eventually culminated in a 1962 study by Boehm himself, the same scientist who later coined the term graphene, in which single layers of oxidized graphitic structures were potentially isolated. Boehm inferred that the “extremely thin lamellae” he observed had thicknesses as low as 3 Å, consistent with a single atomic layer (the figure is from his original work). A definitive claim of the graphite monolayer isolation by Boehm was prevented only because the characterization techniques available at the time were unfortunately simply not advanced enough to prove it conclusively.

Looking back, the work of Boehm, Wallace, and many other brilliant scientists prepared the ground for what happened in 2004. That long history is what makes graphene, and, more broadly, 2D materials happen and become such a 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 today for a 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀, especially in areas where conventional materials are reaching their limits.

source : Josué Cremonezzi

Elkem to sell majority of Silicones division to Bluestar

On 13 February 2026, Elkem ASA announced an agreement to sell the majority of the Silicones division to Bluestar to create a focused, globally-leading metals and materials producer.

"Since its founding more than 120 years ago, Elkem has consistently optimised its portfolio to adapt to changing market dynamics and capitalise on emerging growth opportunities. By divesting the majority of the Silicones division, we are simplifying our business, sharpening our strategic focus and allocating capital where we see strong long‑term growth opportunities. We are confident that the agreement also delivers the most favourable outcome for the Silicones division positioning the business for accelerated specialisation and growth," says CEO Helge Aasen.

 

Transaction highlights:

Elkem to sell majority of the Silicones division to Bluestar to create a focused, globally-leading metals and materials producer

Transaction will be settled through redemption of Bluestar’s 338,338,536 shares (52.9%) in Elkem. No cash payments by Elkem nor Bluestar as settlement

Minority investors to assume 100% control of Elkem (listed)

Transaction solves Elkem and Bluestar’s long-term strategic goals regarding operations and ownership

Transaction is conditional upon shareholders’ approval at EGM, waivers and approvals from lenders, and other customary approvals

Folketrygdfondet, Must Invest AS, DNB Asset Management, Nordea Investment Management, and Perestroika have pre-committed their support for the transaction at the EGM, and fully underwritten a NOK 1,500 million contemplated equity capital raise subject to certain terms and conditions

Transaction is expected to close by May 2026

source : Elkem