COMMENTARY

Steel and Plastics Because of their excellent mechanical properties, ease of working and relative cheapness, the standard steels are the most widely used engineering materials. The most promising of the newer materials are the plastics which despite certain natural disadvantages (particularly lack of strength) possess the important property of being relatively inert to chemical attack, a property not found in steels. Although continued attempts are being made to produce plastics having the mechanical properties of steel, despite some minor successes it is doubtful whether this will ever be achieved.