The emergence of reaction injection molding (RIM) has been fol- lowed by
the industry with mounting interest. RIM technology has brought to
polymer processing a new flexibility and savings in both energy and
capital investment. The new developments and the number of engineers and
scientists working in RIM is growing at so fast a rate that there is
need for sharing information on progress in this area. This book is
based on papers presented at the International Symposium on Reaction
Injection Molding which was held in 1981 in Atlanta, Georgia, and was
sponsored by the American Chemical Society, Division of Organic Coatings
and Plastics Chemistry. The book is divided into four parts covering
different areas of RIM development. The first part is devoted to the
future trends of RIM develop- ment in the United States and Japan. The
structure-properties relationship and effects of annealing on properties
of RIM elastomers are covered in the second part. New non-urethane
polymers such as polyamides, polyisocyanurates and polystyrene suitable
for RIM processing are discussed in the third part. In the last part the
engineering and technological aspects of RIM, such as glass
reinforcement, mixing, flow and moldability are covered in detail.
Finally I would like to thank Mrs. Iris Glebe for typing this book and
for help with editing, and K. Zielinski for his assistance v vi PREFACE
in reviewing and, when necessary, correcting some of the papers. Thanks
is also due to the editors of Plenum for their patience and helpfulness.