Reliable and meaningful methods of polymer testing are necessary to support the plastics industry, being essential for understanding material and part properties, and evaluating materials for a part design, with important implications for product safety as well as operating conditions and lifetime. This book covers all the most important testing methods, from long-established basic techniques to recent developments, including the latest polymer testing standards. By means of examples for the optimization of materials as well as for the evaluation of part properties, an insight into modern polymer testing and its interdisciplinary character is provided. Included in this third edition is an all-new chapter on the testing of polymer films; additionally, many small updates and corrections have been made throughout the book.

Prof. Wolfgang Grellmann has been Head of the Department of Material Diagnostics and Testing at the Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, since 1995. Prof. Sabine Seidler is, since 1996, Chair of Nonmetallic Materials at the Technical University Vienna, Austria, at which she is also rector.