What are the advantages of using polymers rather than metals?

Answer 1

Oh, dude, using polymers instead of metals is like choosing a cozy hoodie over a suit of armor. Polymers are lighter, cheaper, and more flexible than metals, making them perfect for stuff like making toys, packaging, and even body implants. So, yeah, polymers are basically the cool kids on the block when it comes to material science.

Answer 2

Well, sweetheart, let me break it down for you. Polymers are lighter, cheaper, and more corrosion-resistant than metals. Plus, they can be molded into any shape you want, unlike those rigid old chunks of metal. So, if you want flexibility and affordability, go for polymers, honey.

Answer 3

Polymers a long chains of monomers, and the interaction between the molecules are weak Van der Waal's forces. In metal, they exists as cations (positively charged ions) in a "sea" of delocalised electrons, hence the intermolecular interaction is the much stronger electrostatic forces.

Imagine taking 5 sheets of thick paper stacked on top of each other, it is easier to bend them compared to 5 magnetic strips, as it requires less forces to overcome the weak Van der Waal's forces exemplified in the paper rather than the strong electrostatic forces exemplified in the strips of magnet

Answer 4

Mostly cost. The material is less expensive than metal, it's less expensive to form it into the finished product because most plastic parts are molded, and you can get polymer closer to final form in the molding stage than you can metal. Also, there are transparent polymers and, Star Trek notwithstanding, metal is very opaque.

Today's product is a gas tank for a car. A gas tank is an enclosed box with a neck to fill it through, a big hole in the top surface for the fuel pump with a reinforcing ring around it, and six threaded bolt holes around the big one so you can secure the pump to the tank. If you were to make it from metal, you'd first stamp out the top and bottom halves. You'd cut holes in the top for the neck and pump, then weld on the neck and reinforcing rings. The bolt holes would then be drilled and tapped. After welding the two halves together, you would have the tank galvanized so it won't rust, painted, and sometimes internally coated. If you were going to make the same tank from polyethylene, the mold would produce a one-piece tank with the neck and pump hole already in place and the bolt holes where they are supposed to be...and the only work you'd have to do to the tank to get it ready for use is to trim the plastic away from the neck and pump holes.

The advantage of using metal over polymer (not composites, but pure plastic) is that for the same strength the metal weighs less, you can repair metal easier than plastic assuming that you can repair plastic at all, and it's more reliable in that it's stronger and it fails in a more gradual fashion. Plastic has taken over the market for gas tanks on passenger cars, but you'll never see a plastic tank on a race car, a big truck or an aircraft.

Answer 5

This is due to the cross linking in the Polymers, (Rocket stop cheating)

Answer 6

Polymers are cheaper, resistant to corrosion and have a low density.