TECHNOLOGY OUTLOOK: REINFORCED PLASTICS PROCESSING IN THE '80'S.

The highly automated, clean and efficient reinforced-plastics processing plant envisioned for the latter part of this decade is becoming more of a reality every day. Pressures from Detroit's automakers, Washington's regulators, and rising raw-material costs have already fostered growth of new processing technologies that can be expected to change the face of RP manufacturing in the years ahead. This paper gives a report on what processors and suppliers see ahead in the way of trends in compression, injection and resin transfer molding, spray-up, lay-up, filament winding and pultrusion, and hybrid processes.