Objective This study investigated the wear resistance of injection-molded thermoplastic denture base resins using nanoindentation instrument. Materials and methods Six injection-molded thermoplastic denture base resins (two polyamides, two polyesters, one polycarbonate, one polymethylmethacrylate [PMMA]) and a PMMA conventional heat-polymerized denture-based polymer control were tested. Elastic...

Flax fibres are oftenly used for reinforcing thermoplastic to manufacture biocomposite materials exhibiting numerous advantages such as high mechanical properties, low density and biodegradability. The mechanical properties of a biocomposite material depends on the nature and orientation of the fibres, the nature of the matrix and mainly on the adhesion between fiber and the polymer matrix. The...

Clear thermoplastic retainers have been widely used in daily orthodontics; however, they have inherent limitations associated with thermoplastic polymer materials such as dimensional instability, low strength, and poor wear resistance. To solve these problems, we developed a new type of clear orthodontic retainer that incorporates multi-layer hybrid materials. It consists of three layers; an ou...

A polymer blend is a mixture of two or more polymers that have been blended together to create a new material with different physical properties. Generally, there are five main types of polymer blend: thermoplastic–thermoplastic blends; thermoplastic–rubber blends; thermoplastic–thermosetting blends; rubber– thermosetting blends; and polymer–filler blends, all of which have been extensively stu...

In simple terms, the wood cell wall is a composite made of a rigid cellulose polymer in a matrix of lignin and the hemicelluloses. The lignin polymer in the middle lamella and S2 layer is thermoplastic; that is, it softens upon heating. The glass transition temperature Tg of the lignin in the matrix is approximately 170°C (338°F). Above the matrix Tg, it is possible to cause the lignin to under...

A new method for the fabrication of microscale features in thermoplastic substrates is presented. Unlike traditional thermoplastic microfabrication techniques, in which bulk polymer is displaced from the substrate by machining or embossing, a unique process termed orogenic microfabrication has been developed in which selected regions of a thermoplastic surface are raised from the substrate by a...

We report a cost-efficient and easy to implement process for fabricating microfluidic reactors in thermoplastic materials. The method includes (i) the fabrication of an imprint template (master), which consists of a photoresist deposited on a metal plate; (ii) the thermoembossing of the reactor features into polymer sheets; (iii) the activation of the embossed and planar thermoplastic surfaces;...

Using polymer materials to fabricate microfluidic devices provides simple, cost effective, and disposal advantages for both lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices and micro total analysis systems (μTAS). Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer and thermoplastics are the two major polymer materials used in microfluidics. The fabrication of PDMS and thermoplastic microfluidic device can be categorized as fron...

Each year about 50 Million tons polymer is processed to fibers worldwide [1]. Polymeric fibers are manufactured into all sorts of daily as well as industrial goods [2, 3]. The most prominent materials are thermoplastic among which poly(ethylene terephtalat) (PET), polyamides (PA) and polypropylene (PP) make up the largest fraction [4]. Other thermoplastic polymers such as poly(vinylidene fluori...