Abstract:

During the courses of Chemistry at the last semesters, students start wondering which type of work they will find.

In our curse of applied chemistry, we try to teach them, the historical concepts of several developments in the processing of different chemical materials.

One of the topics, is the processing of polymers. We have developed a historical approach of calendering plastics. The aim is to teach students how a novel area of opportunities is developed since its begining, stressing the new developments needed to be successful.

One of the best teachers of human kind is history. If we can learn how other people in the past solved problems and be able to consolidate a huge manufacturing process, new developments can be achieved. Students can get an incentive to develop new methodology and learn how problems are and find a real solution to them. Learning from the history of the past is important in order to avoid doing the same mistakes other people did.

The course has two main objectives, teaching students the history of a process and teaching them how to find the right information.

In this course, we go very deeply in the search of patent literature, in such a way of finding the first patents filled in the earlier 1800 and continue with the development of the technology through the years until the recent times.

It is very satisfied that student at the end of the course they are competent to perform their own searchs with confidence and are able to find the right answers for solving a particular challenge.

Keywords:

Processing plastics, calendering, polymers, PVC, chemistry.