Development of plastics

The first fully synthetic plastic came from Belgian-American Leo Hendrick Baekeland, who registered a patent for phenolic plastic.

Baekeland, the son of a shoemaker and a maid, was born in Ghent on 1863. 1884, at the age of 2 1, Baekeland received his doctorate from Ghent university. At the age of 24, he became a professor of physics and chemistry at Bruges Teachers College. 1889 just married the daughter of a university tutor, and Baekeland won a travel scholarship to go to the United States to engage in chemical research.

Encouraged by Professor Columbia University, Baekeland stayed in the United States and worked for a photography supplier. This led him to invent Velox photographic paper a few years later, which can be developed in light, not in the sun. 1893, Baekeland resigned and established Nepera chemical company.

Under the impact of new products, Eastman Kodak, a photographic equipment manufacturer, can't stand it. 1898, after two negotiations, KeDafang bought the patent right of Velox photographic paper for 750,000 US dollars (equivalent to 2065438+2003150,000 US dollars). However, Kodak soon found that this formula didn't work, and Baekeland's answer was: This is normal. Inventors will omit one or two steps in patent documents to prevent infringement. Kodak was told that they bought the patent, but not all the knowledge. After paying another $654.38 million, Kodak knew that the secret was in a solution.

After digging the first bucket of gold, Baekeland bought a mansion overlooking the Hudson River in yonkers, near New York, transformed a barn into a fully equipped private laboratory, and cooperated with others to build an experimental factory in Brooklyn. At that time, the booming power industry included a huge market for insulating materials. The first temptation Baekeland smelled was the soaring price of shellac, a natural insulating material that has been produced by cottage industries in South Asia for centuries. After investigation, Baekeland took finding a substitute for shellac as its first commercial goal. At that time, chemists began to realize that many natural resins and fibers that can be used as coatings, adhesives and fabrics are polymers, that is, macromolecules with repetitive structures, and began to look for components and methods to synthesize polymers.

The difference is that celluloid comes from chemically treated collodion and other plant materials containing cellulose, while phenolic plastic is the first completely synthetic plastic in the world. Baekeland named it "Bakelite" after himself. Fortunately, his British colleague Sir James Swinburne filed a patent application only one day later, otherwise the English name of phenolic plastic might be "Swinburnet". 1909 On February 8th, Baekeland disclosed the plastic at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.

The appearance of counterfeit phenolic plastics also made Baekeland adopt genuine labels similar to today's "Intel Inside" on its products very early. 1926 patent protection expired, and a large number of similar products flooded into the market. After negotiation, Baekeland merged with its rivals and owned a real phenolic empire.

As a scientist, Baekeland is famous for his fame and fortune. He holds more than 65,438+000 patents and many honorary positions. He was also in the Science and Business Hall of Fame after his death. He not only has the business acumen that scientists rarely have, but also has too many dull lives. Besides movies and cars, his biggest hobby is hanging out on yachts in shirts and shorts. But it is said that he only has a formal suit and always wears a pair of old sports shoes. In order to make him change his clothes, the artist's wife picked out a 125 British blue twill serge suit in the clothing store and paid the shopkeeper 100 in advance to display the suit in the window and hang a $25 label. That night, Baekeland learned from his wife and son that such a good thing was cheap and good, and bought it the next day. On my way home, I met Samuel Antmeyer, a neighbor and lawyer. Baekeland's new clothes were immediately bought by the other party for 75 dollars, which became an example of his pride in his shrewdness towards his wife.

1939, when Baekeland retired, his son George Washington Baekeland had no intention of going to the sea to do business, and the company sold it to Union Carbide Company for1650,000 US dollars (equivalent to 200 million US dollars today). 1945, one year after Baekeland's death, the annual output of plastics in the United States exceeded 400,000 tons, 1979, surpassing the representative of the industrial age-steel. In the exhibition of London Science Museum, Baekeland's great-grandson Xiu Calaque holds a urea-formaldehyde plastic mobile phone in one hand and a mobile phone made of biodegradable plastic in the other.

Application and development of plastics The rapid development of plastics industry has also brought a series of social problems caused by waste plastics and garbage waste plastics. The application of plastic products has reached every corner of society, from industrial production to food, clothing, housing and transportation, plastic products are everywhere. People have begun to find that plastic waste has quietly come to us, which has seriously affected our health and living environment. For example, some agricultural land has begun to reduce production due to the influence of waste plastic film, and the "white pollution" caused by waste plastic has also begun to cause headaches. Non-decomposing lunch boxes cannot be effectively recycled, and plastic waste used in daily life cannot be disposed of. The sharp increase of plastic waste and the social and environmental problems caused by it are placed in front of people and in the places where people live and live all over the world.

Plastics have promoted the development of machinery.

The huge market of plastics has promoted the development of plastic machinery industry. Plastic machinery industry has a wide range of applications, including packaging, agriculture, construction, automobiles and other fields. With the continuous development of domestic petrochemical industry, China's plastic machinery industry has gradually formed an independent industrial sector and begun to take shape. China's plastic machinery industry has developed very rapidly, basically achieving leap-forward development and expanding its industrial scale.

China's plastic machinery industry has great development potential, especially those models with high technology content, good performance and relatively moderate price. Especially large, precise and special injection molding machines, low-temperature, high-power single-screw extruders, multi-layer extrusion and blow molding machines for producing packaging materials with high permeability and heat resistance, and blow molding machines for producing industrial parts (automobile parts, etc.). ) has a good development prospect.

Nowadays, the market demand and consumption of plastic products have changed greatly, but plastic machinery is still the most concerned by major manufacturers and consumers. At present, the independent innovation ability of China's plastic machinery industry is relatively weak, there are few kinds of high-end and personalized special products, and the industry concentration is still low. However, the development prospect of plastic processing industry is good, which greatly promotes the rapid development of China's plastic machinery manufacturing industry, and the development potential of China's plastic machinery industry is full of stamina. After long-term struggle and opening to the outside world, China plastics industry has formed a relatively complete industrial system and become a basic material industry that keeps pace with steel, cement and wood. As a new material, its application field has far exceeded the above three materials. Since the beginning of 2 1 century, China plastics industry has made remarkable achievements and achieved a historic leap. As one of the pillar industries of light industry, the plastic industry has maintained a growth rate of more than 10% in recent years. While maintaining a rapid development speed, its economic benefits have also been improved. The total output value of enterprises above designated size in plastic products industry ranks third in light industry 19, and the product sales rate is 97.8%, which is higher than the average level of light industry. From the production of synthetic resin, plastic machinery and plastic products, the development of plastic industry in China is strong.

From June 5438 to February 65438, 2007, the total industrial output value of plastic products enterprises in China was 80 18 15657 thousand yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.06%. From June 5438+0 to June 5438+0 in 2008, the total industrial output value of plastic products enterprises nationwide reached 788,006,448,000 yuan, up 22. 16% year-on-year.

China is a big producer of plastic raw materials and a big consumer of plastic products. According to the authoritative statistics of the industry, by the end of 20 13 years, there were some plastic products enterprises 13699 in China. The national output of plastic products was 61886,600 tons, up 8.02% year-on-year. Among them, the output of plastic film products10.893 million tons; The output of plastic daily necessities is 4710.6 million tons; The output of plastic artificial leather and synthetic leather products was 3.47 million tons; The output of FRP products is 2,598,600 tons; The output of foamed plastic products is 6.5438+0.465 million tons. Plastic consumption leaps and bounds

China is a big agricultural country. Agricultural plastic products are indispensable materials for developing modern agriculture and irreplaceable technical measures to resist natural disasters and achieve stable, high-yield, high-quality and efficient crops. They have been widely used in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery in China, and agriculture has become the second largest consumer field of plastic products after packaging industry. Top of plastic consumption

Plastic packaging materials mainly include plastic flexible packaging, woven bags, hollow containers, turnover boxes and so on. , which is one of the biggest applications of plastic products. In 2005, plastic packaging exceeded 7 million tons, accounting for about 1/3 of the total output of packaging materials, ranking first among all kinds of packaging materials. Plastic woven bags and heavy-duty packaging bags have been widely used to package various mineral products, chemical products, synthetic resin, raw salt, grain, sugar, cotton and wool. There are also drinks, washing products, cosmetics, chemical products, etc., which are developing rapidly in China, and there is a great demand for essential plastic packaging materials such as composite films, packaging films, containers and turnover boxes. Food and medicine are important materials for the national economy and people's livelihood, and the corresponding packaging demand is very strong. The growth rate of China's pharmaceutical packaging ranks first among the eight largest pharmaceutical producing countries in the world.

Entering the 2nd/kloc-0th century, China's entry into the WTO and the global economic development have further promoted the development of China's domestic demand and foreign trade, and will push BOPP (biaxially oriented polypropylene) and plastic flexible packaging products into a new round of high market demand growth period. According to industry estimates, in 2005, the size of China BOPP film market reached 1 10,000 tons, with an average annual growth rate of over 20%. The development of flexible packaging industry provides a good market opportunity for the development of BOPP industry. The process of adding proper foaming agent to foaming materials (PVC, PE, PS, etc.). ) make the plastic produce a microporous structure. Almost all thermosetting and thermoplastic plastics can be made into foam. According to the cell structure, it can be divided into open-cell foam (most cells are interconnected) and closed-cell foam (most cells are separated), which is mainly determined by the manufacturing methods (including chemical foaming, physical foaming and mechanical foaming).