How Poor Selection of Materials, Design, Tooling, and Design Errors Affect the Aesthetics of Plastic Parts and What Designers Need to Know About the Science of Color and Appearance

Most of the engineers and designers come from the metal world. Therefore, many of them make assumptions on the predicted performance of plastic properties based on their metals background.

Unlike metals, the knowledge of color and appearance is extremely important in the case of plastics. Most plastic parts have dual functions— physical performance and aesthetics.  Aesthetics are important since very few of the parts need to be painted or otherwise decorated if designed and manufactured with due diligence.

Aesthetics and physical properties are quite independent of each other. A vast majority of metal parts meet their aesthetic and environmental requirements just by getting brushed, plated, chromate conversion coated or anodized.

Plastic parts not only need to meet the short-term color and appearance requirements, but also need to be resistant to long term color shift and fading.

This webinar will articulate various points related to aesthetics of plastic parts and what design engineers need to know about science of color and appearance.