Browse Items (120 total)

General Applications: Flooring, furniture, brush blocks, handles, veneer, woodenware, containers, cooperage, laundry appliances,
turning, sleepers (when treated).

Butyl Rubbers (IIR) are synthetics that resemble natural rubber (NR) in properties. They have good resistance to abrasion, tearing and flexing, with exceptionally low gas permeability and useful properties up to 150 C. They have low dielectric…

Calcium carbonate is a common substance found in things like shells, rocks, pearls, and shells. Its most common natural forms are chalk, limestone, and marble, produced by the sedimentation of the shells of small fossilized snails, shellfish, and…

The small round red cedar from the outer Southern coastal plains has plump cones (3-4 mm long) with scale-like leaves forming on the slender extremity of the sprig on the slow- growing shoots. This common plant is found in sand dunes and marshes…

Lay-up and filament winding methods of shaping composites are far too slow and labor-intensive to compete with steel pressings for car body panels and other enclosures. Sheet molding compounds (SMCs) and dough (or bulk) molding compounds (DMCs or…

Epoxies are thermosetting polymers with excellent mechanical, electrical and adhesive properties and good resistance to heat and chemical attack. They are used for adhesives (Araldite), surface coatings and, when filled with other materials such as…

Soda lime glass is the glass of windows, bottles and light bulbs, used in vast quantities, the commonest of them all. The name suggests its composition - 13-17% NaO (the "soda"), 5-10% CaO (the "lime") and 70-75% SiO2 (the "glass"). It has a low…

Lead, when pure, is very soft and, with it low melting point (327 C) it creeps, even at room temperature -- old lead pipes acquire a sag between fixing points over time. There are two broad classes of alloys base on lead. The first, typified by the…

When the Romans conquered Britain in 43AD they discovered rich deposits of lead ore and started a mining and refining industry that was to continue for 1000 years (the symbol for lead - Pb - derives from its Latin name - Plumbum). They used it for…

Magnesium is a metal almost indistinguishable from aluminum in color, but of lower density. It is the lightest of the light-metal trio (with partners aluminum and titanium) and light it is - a computer case made from magnesium is barely two thirds…