Chemistry+Applications+Essay+29

Chemistry Applications Essay

Mr. Ceccarelli

Honors Chem 10

January 4th, 2013

 The Plastic Car

 There has been a substantial amount of fuss around the new idea of “The Plastic Car”; though it is near impossible to make an entirely plastic mass produced domestic car, there are some very substantial and beneficial aspects of the plastic car. These range from  The way the specific plastic differs in the final critiquing and specialization of the batch of it, but for the most part, polymers (petrochemicals) are being specialized for specific purposes, usually structural integrity, rigidity, and heat stability. Structural uses in cars include chassis pieces, fenders, dashboards, and even parts in some frames. A lot of pigments and special paints are usually infused with the plastic in the chassis, which is nice because a car with a plastic exterior with pigments within the plastic used in it never require painting because it cannot chip or fade and never rust because polymers don’t oxidize.  The man, Matty Holtzberg learned forty years ago that there was an existing french plastic that was robust enough for use in a car engine. He continued on to order some in the shape of a piston for his willing friend’s car and it was fully functional when he installed it. Over the next decade and a half, he constructed a composite engine all with plastic, “reinforced plastic for the block walls, piston skirts, connecting rods, oil pan, and portions of the cylinder head... weighing less than 200 pounds.” Keep in mind, this was all in the late 1970’s.  There has been much debate, however, on the environmental impacts of plastic cars. Industrial grade plastic used in cars can always be recycled, but creating and perfecting the plastic that one would use takes a lot of petroleum. People argue that after all of the petroleum used in the manufacturing of plastic cars, it isn’t really worth all of the things that plastic cars provide. If a plastic car (just like any other car) is given regular maintenance and taken care of well, they easily last over 35 years (just like any other car) and they will get easily double the mileage of a non-hybrid car. And let us not forget all of the process that goes into the making of metal alloy cars. Mining out the metals in the first place and all of the pollution and energy that that takes, along with the difficult and environmentally detrimental process of cleansing the metals in the car and making them consumer-safe with caustic acids and multiple layers of coating in addition to the paint on the chassis. This is a process that is not shared with the production of plastic cars and will never have to be due to the fact that polymers naturally are resistant to weathering and are as harmful as fancy candle wax on your fingers.  All in all, the production and use of plastic cars is much more healthy for the environment and they are just generally a better product. The fact that they last longer, require less maintenance like re-painting and staining, and have better gas mileage make them better overall than their metallic counterparts.

Works Cited Page

 Motavalli, Jim. New York Times. For Lightweight Cars, a Materials Race. October 11th, 2011. Web. December 24th, 2013. < [] > Sherman, Don. Automobile Magazine. The case for plastic car engines, November 2009. Web. January 2nd, 2013. < [] >