ABSTRACT

Probably less than 1% of all mechanical fasteners are made of a nonmetallic material. Nevertheless, plastics provide certain combinations of performance characteristics which no metallic material can duplicate. Plastics are light weight and corrosion resistant. They also have excellent thermal and electrical insulating properties, and can be easily colored for matching or coding. To their detriment however, plastics have low strength and cannot tolerate even modestly elevated temperatures. Furthermore many of the plastics embrittle rather quickly in moderately low temperatures.