The Development of The Most Used Material - Plastic.

Today we take the majority of things that happen around us for granted. we even don't realize the material of products that we chose to buy and use during our everyday life and how much improvement was done to them during the years.

Although today's materials are far more improved than the materials that were used in the first quarter of the 20th century. There have always been other natural alternatives such as Amber, Tortoiseshell and horn which are considered as "natural polymers" in the 18th century. An example of one of the use that horn had was to replace glass.

The first synthetic plastic was the invention of a rich Belgian chemist. In 1905 Leo Baekeland found that a combination of chemicals will produce a material that will bong all types of powders together. Once this material solidify it will never soften even when heated. This material which was invented in the beginning of the 20th century have had similar properties to materials from today such as the Thermo-set plastic or epoxy resin. This material was named as Bakelite. It was water resistant and was rock hard when solid but could have been easily cut by a knife. This material was used as plastic for records and telephone.

The first Nylon of 1930's used for stockings

In later years the development in plastic increased. In 1933 polythene was invented and a later invention was perspex which was invented in 1934. Another synthetic which is still highly used today was nylon. It was mainly used for toothbrushes and stockings. But later it started to be used for military purposes for parachute cords in world war II. Another plastic which  was used for military purpose during war was perspex as it was used for plane cockpits.

World War II plane cockpit "visor" made from Perspex

Modern day fighter jet cockpit glass

Perspex or as some might knot the material as acrylic sheets, is a very well known and used material in many of today's industry. There are different uses for the material, one common use is for the making f different signs as the material itself let light passes through if it is made in the right thickness and type. Acrylic sheets are commonly used in products as well as it can be molded. the most common technique in molding for acrylic sheet is vacuum forming. As the material softens when heat is applied, it will become more malleable and gives chance to the manufacturer to work and form the plastic. now a days acrylic is also found in a liquid form and is often used in products especially when the products have to be in clear finish. this type of material is also molded.

another form of use for plastic that is known and used worldwide in most of the factories that use plastic is that which is molded by injection molding. It started in 1921 when the first injection molding machine was invented. The following year the first product which was injected was spectacles.

when it comes to molding plastic in the early years it was very different even because of the primary stages of the material itself. A clear example is the difference of manufacturing process and the type of material used by Ray and Charles Eames for one of their chair and the material and process used for some chairs designed by Tom Dixon, Chairs which are similar in design. In the early years of Eames the type of plastic used was very brittle and it had to be reinforced by fibers, after some time the material had the tendency to crack. In contrast in today's molded plastic no fibers are used as the plastic that we use today is much further developed and stronger. The development in injection molding gave more opportunity to designers such as Tom Dixon to further develop their products and with modern machinery make plastic products without reinforcement which are cheaper than others from the past and products that lasts longer.

Eames's plastic chair

Tom Dixon's chair

Other designer which was one of the first which worked with plastic was Verner Panton. His chair is still famous today but one difficulty that we have today is to preserve his chair as it was made out of brittle reinforced plastic which by time it cracked and today this marvelous product has to be restored.

Panton Chair

Tom Dixon's version of Panton's chair

Such development in materials and manufacturing techniques removed boundaries in design as it simplified the manufacturing process which also effects the efficiency of products and even costs.

Reference:

 PlasticsEurope - History - PlasticsEurope . 2014. PlasticsEurope - History - PlasticsEurope . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.plasticseurope.org/what-is-plastic/history.aspx. [Accessed 03 January 2014].

Panton-Chair - Verner Panton. 2014. Panton-Chair - Verner Panton. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.verner-panton.com/furniture/archive/7/. [Accessed 03 January 2014].

Plastic. 2014. Plastic. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/plastic.htm. [Accessed 03 January 2014].