SOR 1222 Designing Reliable Plastic Components

Plastics provide exceptional design freedom, but ensuring their reliability requires understanding how materials behave under real operating conditions. Mojan and Enrico discuss why material selection, manufacturing processes, and reliability requirements must be considered together from the earliest design stages. They explore mission profiles, load paths, and damage mechanisms including fatigue, creep, and stress relaxation, explaining how multiple mechanisms can affect the same component. From plastic gears and sealing elements to injection-molded parts, the discussion highlights why early design reviews and engineering judgment are essential. The episode demonstrates that reliable plastic design begins with understanding how a component is loaded and how it might eventually fail.