Advanced Thermoplastic Polymers and Composites

Dear Colleagues,

In the last decade, design and material innovation for manufacturing composites have reached new heights. Thermoplastic polymers and their composites have become the most in demand materials in recent times as they provide numerous advantages over thermoset composites. Thermoplastic polymers have a high damage tolerance, high impact resistance, recyclability, formability, weldability, repairability, and cost-effectiveness productivity compared with thermoset composites. Thermoplastic polymers and composites are widely used in automotive, aerospace, electrical and electronics, industrial, and medical applications. Thermoplastic composites are estimated to grow from USD 28.0 billion in 2019 to USD 36.0 billion by 2024. High performance thermoplastic materials are used in conjunction with a multitude of manufacturing processes like injection molding, thermoforming, prepreg, liquid injection processes (especially reactive thermoplastics), automated tape placement, filament winding, pultrusion, additive manufacturing, and other processes. The material limits, design, and assembly requirements, as well as the processing constraints, are significantly important for the realisation of novel product development using a manufacturing process by simultaneously optimising the reliability, safety, and other performance-related issues. The current thermoplastic material systems and the manufacturing techniques still have plenty of room for optimisation and advancement.

This Special Issue aims to present the latest scientific and technical advances in thermoplastic materials and their composites, processing, characterization, product development, manufacturing process parameter optimisations, and modelling. Manuscripts pertaining to both scientific as well as applied research on thermoplastic polymers and composites are highly welcome.

Dr. Somen K. Bhudolia 
Dr. Sunil Chandrakant Joshi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.