With radiation crosslinking of engineering plastics into the next millennium

Much basic research has been done on the crosslinking behaviour of so-calle d "engineering plastics". Up to now the industrial conversion to actual man ufacture of multifunctional electronic components has gained ever increasin g importance in the plastics industry and will continue to do so in the com ing years. Examples of this are SMD (surface mounted device) technology, an d 3D-MID (3-dimensional moulded interconnected devices) technology. These t echniques require materials with high short-term temperature stability. In this paper it will be discussed which engineering plastics are significant for the radiation crosslinking process, for both technical and commercial r easons. The main topics will be the crosslinking behaviour of Polybutylente rephthalate (PBT) and Polyamide (PA). The importance and the challenges to the irradiation industry, as well as practical applications, will be shown. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.