ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the different methods used for processing thermosetting polymers, thermoplastics, and polymeric composites. Polymers are firmly established as a prime class of materials of significant economic relevance because of the possibility of converting the macromolecules into useful products and functional articles by a variety of processing techniques. The versatility of polymeric materials arises from the fact that one can "engineer" the structure through interaction of the processing and materials technologies. The extruder screw design is governed by the thermal and melt flow behavior of the polymer. The rotational molding process uses polymer powder as the starting material rather than the pellets and it is used for producing large-volume hollow containers and hollow articles of complex shapes. A number of polymer processing operations involve deformation of the polymer in the solid state at temperatures above its glass-transition temperature and below its melting point.
