Course dates - click register to view and book
- 8 May 2025
- 25 Sep 2025
- We also run an online version of this course
Course overview
Plastic materials are often used in engineering applications where reliable and consistent performance is critically important. But their failure can have damaging and expensive consequences. Understanding the cause can assist in rectifying the issue, limiting the damage and avoiding future failures. This course will provide an overview of material properties, selection, failure mechanisms and methods used to investigate failure.Gain CPD credits
Smithers is an IOM3 Quality Assured training provider and our courses are approved towards professional development.
Learning outcomes
- Basic understanding of plastic materials and their key properties.
- Grounding in the principles of specification and selection of plastic materials based on service requirements.
- Knowledge of how plastic materials and components can fail.
- The ability to recognise key modes of plastic component failure.
- An introduction to the methodology employed in order to investigate plastic failure.
Course content
Introduction to Plastic Materials- Basic introduction to the fundamental properties of plastics and how this affects their performance.
- Understanding their limitations and how this can affect their durability.
- Overview of the wide range of plastic types.
- How their structure affects properties.
- The importance of material specification and selection of material at the design stage which will produce more durable products and also help with any failure investigations.
- The various common modes of plastic product failure and how to recognise them.
- Factors related to design, manufacture, service, environment and also human factors.
- Failure and cracking mechanisms including chemical attack, degradation, ESC, creep, fatigue and relaxation.
- Typical approach to take when investigating the failure of a plastic component.
- Principle analytical tests and how they can be used to confirm the root cause of failure.
- Examples of plastic component failure with a review and explanation of the cause and method of diagnosis.
Who will benefit?
- Those needing to ensure that a plastic component or material they are using in their product is suitable for the intended service usage.
- Anyone actively involved in investigating plastic component failures.
- All those involved with engineering, design, specification or quality.
Presenter information
You can read more about our presenters by clicking on their expert profilesWhat our delegates say
"Good course, we are considering running this in-house"John Iles (Huntleigh)