Abstract
Proper selection of plastics as materials of construction in the chemical and allied industries can result in tremendous savings in maintenance costs. Recommended procedure is to choose the plastic most resistant to the environment and then to apply engineering design to circumvent any inherent, unfavorable properties of the specific plastic. Applications of this technique are discussed and illustrated, with particular reference to the use of polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, polyethylene, polyester glass fiber reinforced and phenolformaldehyde resins in the fabrication of chemical processing equipment and use as structural materials.
Good engineering design in the application of plastics is dependent largely upon the availability of past performance data. Included in this report are data on the maximum working .pressure and tensile strength for plastic and metal pipe, maximum working temperature-pressure relationship for plastic and metal pipe and ratios of installed piping costs to pipe costs. 6.6.8
