The results of tribological tests help to optimize material selection, improve product quality and service life, reduce costs and develop clear competitive advantages. The practical data obtained enables design engineers to make informed decisions and offer their customers high-performance, reliable products. This blog article deals with the tribological testing methods used, why big data means a lot but not everything, the advantages for plastics processing companies and, above all, the role of the material developer or compounder:

The role that the material developer plays (or ideally should play) quickly becomes clear if you take a closer look at the entire chain - from product development to application development to the tooling/processing process - in plastics production or plastics compounding. Then you quickly come to the conclusion that the material developer plays a very decisive, major role. The earlier he is involved in the material selection process, the more efficiently the selection of the potentially suitable material can be narrowed down. His range of applications extends from the selection of the potentially suitable polymer base and the appropriate additives to the right tool and process design. This means that a good material developer actually plays several roles at once.