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<b>Designing Plastics Parts for Assembly</b> 
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<p align="right"><b>Preface 1st Edition</b></p>      
<p align="right"><i>Dr. Peter Dewhurst,</i></p> 
<p align="right">Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering,</p>      
<p align="right"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.uri.edu">University of Rhode Island</a></p>      
<p align="right">November, 1993</p> 
Providence, Rhode Island      
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         <p>It
         gives me great pleasure to write this preface for such an important
         contribution to engineering design. It is rather sad fact that while
         the creative use of plastics has changed the very structure of consumer
         products over the past decade, many engineering students graduate with
         very little knowledge of polymer engineering or plastic design
         principles. This book written by a recognized expert and practitioner
         in the field of plastic component design is both a valuable text for
         engineering courses and a resource for practicing design engineers.</p> 
         <p>The
         full potential for the use of plastics in consumer products became
         recognized in the mid 1980's
         through the pioneering development of the IBM ProPrinter. The
         ProPrinter destroyed the myth, prevalent amongst product engineers at
         that time, that such design elements as plastic springs, plastic
         bearings, plastic securing elements, etc., lacked the structural
         integrity of their more common metal counterparts. In the ProPrinter,
         not only were these plastic design features shown to have the required
         reliability in regular use and abuse, they were combined into single
         parts to produce a new level of design elegance. For example, the
         injection molded side-frames of the ProPrinter, which support the
         rollers and lead screw, incorporated bearings for all of these rotating
         members, springs to maintain the required paper pressure, and
         cantilever securing elements to allow the frames to be snap fitted into
         the base. The result of such innovative design details produced a
         desktop printer which could be assembled in only 32 final assembly
         steps compared to the 185 steps required to assemble its main
         competitor in the marketplace.</p> 
         <p>Since
         the emergence of the ProPrinter, smart plastic design has become an
         essential tool in the competitive battle to produce products which have
         simpler structures with smaller numbers of discrete parts. Part count
         reduction, in particular, has been shown, through numerous case studies
         published over the past five years, to have a ripple effect on product
         manufacture which improves the efficiency of the entire organization.
         Fewer parts means fewer manufacturing and assembly steps, and fewer
         joints and interfaces, all of which have a positive effect on quality
         and reliability. Moreover, a reduction in the number of the parts
         results in a direct attack on the hidden or overhead cost of an
         organization. Thus, fewer parts also mean fewer vendors for purchasing
         to deal with, less documentation, smaller inventory levels, less
         inspection, simpler production scheduling and so on.</p> 
         <p><i>Designing
         Plastic Parts for Assembly</i> 
          
         tackles all of the important issues to be faced in designing
         multi-feature complex plastic parts. The book is thus much more than
         its title suggests. It deals with essential fundamentals for the
         development of competitive consumer products.</p> 
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 <td>Copyright ©1994-2003 Carl Hanser Verlag. All rights reserved.</td> 
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