Why the heck do they make things out of plastic

Well it took me 4 plus hours to drive home today from the V.A. hospital. Upper tank on the radiator of my wife's car. 1991 Toyota Corolla cracked had about a 6 inch crack in it. But any how I got home but not fun with it being 100 with the heat index even higher. Sealed it up with silicone and got about 15 miles to the cool down. So took a long time to drive about 75 miles. Stupid thing was that I had to go for simple X-rays so a chiropractor could work on me and the x-rys if done local would have cost less then my travel pay

Bad day for a breakdown. My thermometer in my truck said 109 today. Do you go to Cochran in St. Louis ? They have had a lot of trouble down there lately. Sad state of affairs that because of your military service , you have to drive that far to get some X-rays. I'd need a Dr. when I got home for the back pain from the 8 hour drive. Hope it works out for you. Only good thing about a day like that is it is so nice just to be home.

Well I live down at the Lake of the Ozarks but have to go to Columbia to the V.A. hospital there to do the X-rays. X-ray local at the chiropractor would cost less then my travel pay but because the V.a. is set to do them they do not seem to see the $$ cost. Sad that the gov has gotten to the point that the $$ do not matter

old,
The reason they make things out of cheap plastic is very simple. The word is 'CHEAP'.

You will find no quality plastics in any car. The automotive industry uses mostly filled nylons, polystyrene, and polyethylene. Your radiator tank is probably a glass filed nylon injected part. About three quarters of automotive plastics are recycled junk to start with. No matter where you buy your car, some MBA (Mind Bending A**hole) is breathing down an Engineer's neck, demanding lower costs.

For the last twelve years I made my living making special application and custom parts. About half of the parts I created were made from some form of plastic. There are plastics that are insanely expensive. Those plastics were sometimes stronger than steel and would do things that no metal could do. Any boob can make a pistol or shotgun totally from plastic. It would just cost triple the price of the metal equivalent. Winchester made pump action plastic shotgun barrels in the fifties that were superior to the steel ones. The cost was higher than steel and public opinion made them buy them all back. I have seen a few of them that have worn out several shotguns. I have never seen one burst or split.

Don't turn your nose up on plastics. I put phenolic slides in our baler and they will never wear out. They are as slick as momma's Teflon frypan and the baler now runs so easy and smooth. Have you ever lined a chopper chute with HDPE? Once you start using the stuff, you would not trade your old chopper for a million bucks and a new chopper. The women in these parts would trade their wedding ring for a chopping block made of HDPE. I made cutting boards from the stuff and they are pure heaven. Knives never dull on them and they get tossed in a dishwasher with no effect. With no odor or smell, because the bacteria has nowhere to feed, all kitchens must have them to replace nasty wood and other cheapo food work surfaces. You could grind up HDPE and feed it to your kids with no notice. It is totally inert and it has been proven in the last thirty years to be safer than rainwater.

Acetron GP bushings will outwear ball bearings and bronze. Ertalyte bushings and bearings will outlive any other material in things like jackhammer bodies and such. You can pour sand and steam through the stuff and it will still outlast steel. Remember; plastic is mankind's best material. Greedy sales weasels are your enemy.

Life demands a popcorn eating audience, careful thought, and laughter.

Charlie at
external_link.com

So it lasted 'only' 19 years? I've seen metal radiators go bad in less time.

Oil is less expensive than metal. Will last longer too.

Charlie, you've really perked my interest with the "phenolic slides" in the baler. And, what is HDPE? Please send me an email @ [email protected]. I"d like to visit with you about the baler application. Thanks.

I think what you're probably referring to UHMW polyethelene, not HDPE. UHMW (ultra-high molecular weight) is what is used for wear & friction resistance, like snowmobile skis, mower skid plates, etc.

Our company molds a few glass-filled nylon parts for automotive, but we don't go out of our way to get that type of business. When we quote a part for an automotive supplier, they require us to quote price reductions for about 5 years into the future. So what happens? We end up quoting a higher price for the first few years to make sure we're still making money 5 years out.

I would have to disagree with that a bit. We often have to use "better" or "premium" grade plastics to control the pats and hold tolerances tight enough and to meet their other specs. Most of our parts were at least the better plastics.

design has alot to do with it... I've had new aftermarket rads w/plastic fail in a couple months.

20 years out of any modern (post 1990) radiator is doing pretty good anyway, regardless of plastic components.

Correct. Especially for under-hood parts, it isn't just cheap recycled plastic. Would need to be heat-stabilized, probably at least 33% glass filled, most likely nylon 6/6 or nylon 12. Probably at least 3x the cost of polypro. & PE. We mold alot of clear nylon for our filter bowls that is over $8 per pound. Amazing stuff, burst pressure on the filter bowls often exceeds 700 PSI.

When the metal radiator in my old '79 Suburban split, it wasn't something I could fix with silicone.

What I did wit the silicone in no way fixed it, it just got me by 10-15 miles at a time then had to pull the silicone back off fill it in and cool/fill and go again for another 10-15 miles not fun way to get 75 miles

My s-10 chebby had that problem, crack was right behind the top radiator hose, where the hot water comes into the radiator. Vertical split, about 2" long, lucky it was at the top, anyway. I think at the time the new rad was around $120. I wonder iffn those plastic welders that HF sells would fix em?