Polymer processing

Polymer processing

Keywords: Internet, Polymers

Welcome to Internews of Engineering Computations. When comparing with more conventional materials such as steel,polymers are relatively new materials with a growing field of application in the food industry, the automotive industry and the aerospace industry, etc. The numerical simulation of polymer processing such as injection moulding or extrusion is essential to the understanding of the complex physics involved in such processes. Internews visits two Web sites which deal with polymer processing; one is an institute and the other is a society.

Webwatch visits a site which deals with a fundamental problem in scientific high performance computing: how to continue a computation after a simulation has been running for days, weeks or even months and the process gets interrupted.

Site #1: Institute of Plastics Processing at the Aachen University of Technology

The Institute of Plastics Processing at the Aachen University of Technology is located at the RWTH Aachen http://www.rwth-aachen.de with its English home page accessible at http://www.rwth-aachen.de/ikv/Ww/english.html

For those of you who want to brush up on their German, the German version of its home page with the title Institut fœr Kunststoffverarbeitung can be found at http://www.rwth-aachen.de/ikv

The institute's home page is frame based and shows the visitor the research institute with contact details and a link to a site map. In the left frame is a typical table of contents list with links to IKV, research activities, association of sponsors, joint research,software, literature, IKV-news and home. The German home page has two more links called Stellenangebote (vacancies) and Studieninformationen (study information).

The IKV link introduces the two leaders of the institute, W. Michaeli and E. Haberstroh, and the objectives of the institute: research, education and training. The institute employs 140 staff, out of whom 80 are researchers.

• The research activities are:

• Injection moulding/PUR-Technology;

• Extrusion/Further Processing;

• Fibre Composites;

• Moulded Part Design/Materials Technology; and

• Crafts and Trades.

This spans a wide area of application of plastics. An interesting aspect of the work carried out by the institute is the combination of in-house experimental work with theory based simulation. This impression is reinforced when following the association of sponsors and the joint research links.

The software link on the institute's home page takes the visitor to a page with four categories:Injection moulding/PUR-Technology, Extrusion/Further Processing, Fibre Composites and Moulded Part Design/Materials Technology. These links mirror the research activities. When following the first link, for instance, the visitor is taken to Moulded Part and Mould Design with CADMOULD. Here, the features of the software are shown with occasional links to screenshots.

The last two links on the English home page of the institute deal with literature published by the members of the institute and with IKV-news. The German home page additionally links to vacancies and to information about the degree in polymer processing offered at the institute.

This site gives a comprehensive overview of the various aspects of polymer processing. It is a clear site that is easy to navigate and points the visitor to literature and software dealing with polymer processing.

Site #2: Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) -- main page

The home page for the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) can be found at http://www.4spe.org"SPE is a network of plastics professionals around the world promoting the knowledge and education of plastics and polymers." Their home page gives a refreshing impression and seems well organised.

The first link on the home page points to the ANTEC 99 Conference in New York during May 1999. ANTEC (Annual Technical Conference) is organised by the SPE and this year is the 57th occasion when plastics professionals meet on this conference.

The remainder of the home page of the SPE is split into six groups:

• 1.

  Membership;

• 2.

  Publications;

• 3.

  Society Info;

• 4.

  Professional Development;

• 5.

  SPE Affiliations; and

• 6.

  Industry Info.

The home page is rounded off by links to Search, Index, Classified and Worldwide Contacts.

The Membership group is further subdivided into Local Sections, Technical Divisions, Special Interest Groups and Membership Information. Technical Divisions range from Automotive and Color and Appearance over Extrusion and Medical Plastics to Thermoforming and Vinyl Plastics. This membership structure gives visitors a very good overview over the activity of the society and the discussion groups within the society.

Publications points to Plastics Engineering, Publications Catalog, Technical Journals and Classified Ads. The first is the official publication of the Society of Plastic Engineers. Publications Catalog and Technical Journals lead to a comprehensive lists of available publications in the field of plastics.

Awards, SPE Contacts, Society Information and SPE, APC, SPI: Who Are We? are listed under Society Info. The first link leads to application forms for the various annual awards by the society. The last one displays a table containing facts about the Mission, the Membership, the Organization, the Finance and the Major Activities of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), the American Plastics Council (APC) and the Society of Plastics Industry (SPI).

The Professional Development group contains Plastics Education Services, Technical Conferences, Seminars/Workshops and ANTEC 99. Plastics Education Services points the visitor to a comprehensive list of video based courses, software and computer based learning material for a wide range of polymer processing applications. The items can be ordered online.

SPE Affiliations is split into SPE Foundation, Certification Program, Scholarship Programs and Certification Review Courses. The Certification Program is carried out by the Institute for Plastics Certification. This certification gives people working in the field of polymer processing a formal recognition of their expertise by a peer group. Within the Scholarship Programs the SPE awarded ten scholarships worth $40,000 in 1998/99.

Industry Info, the last category on the home page of the SPE, is subdivided into Worldwide Plastics Events, Plastics and Our World, Plastics Academy and Links. This category deals with environmental issues under Plastics and Our World and it points to the Plastics Halls of Fame under Plastics Academy. Links displays an alphabetically ordered list of plastics or plastics related sites around the world.

The Society of Plastics Engineers'home site is impressive in the wealth of information it contains. The site layout is clear and the visitor will find it easy to navigate the site. However,there was only a limited amount of information which dealt with numerical simulation with polymer processing.

Webwatch

A range of computer based simulations in the scientific-technical area is complex and it may take several months to complete one full simulation. The simulation process might be terminated before successful completion by a limit on the CPU time, as is the case for shared high performance computing facilities, a hardware failure or by a simple power cut.

In order to avoid having to repeat the already carried out computations a "restart" facility is desirable. Cray supercomputer users have access to system calls that provide the users with the opportunity to periodically save the current status of a simulation. This technique is called "checkpointing". The link http://www.uni-koeln.de/math-nat-fak/geomet/geo/pub/chkpt-1.6.1.tar.gzpoints to such a facility for some Unix workstations. It implements checkpointing and allows for periodic saving of the current process status.

When the application is re-started after a crash, the process is automatically restored to the last known status. This version of checkpointing was implemented by A. Wennmacher http://www.uni-koeln.de/math-nat-fak/geomet/geo/mitarb/aw.html

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The Internet Editor of Engineering Computations, Johann Sienz, can be contacted via e-mail: J.Sienz@swansea.ac.uk or Fax+44-1792-295676.