Friday 5 February 2016

Did you know? #36

Did you know that different plastics have different properties?

Polypropylene is valued for its ability to make offer a 'living hinge'.Living hinges are integrally moulded to provide a flexible link between two or more rigid parts in a single process, thus reducing production costs and enhancing user convenience. They are known as living hinges because they can be flexed over a million times without failing. The phenomenon was discovered by engineers at Enjay (now ExxonMobil) and made its first appearance on the market in 1963.  More information can be found in our You can do it with plastics exhibition.

Here are some examples of the living hinge from the MoDiP collection.

Egg box - AIBDC : 0_6610

Razor - AIBDC : 003485.1

Colander - AIBDC : 006870

You can find out more about the properties of different plastics by looking at the MoDiP Curator's Guide to Plastics.


Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)

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