Over the past 100 years, plastics has replaced other materials at an extraordinary speed and penetrated into our lives. Especially in the last 20 or 30 years, many items that traditionally have to be made from certain materials have become plastic products, and the most remarkable is the automobile and construction industry.

In many people's view, a typical car should be covered with steel bars. However, after years of development, the car has basically been reduced to a "iron shell," and even the iron shell is wrapped in a pile of so-called composite materials. . According to analysis by Luo Baihui, secretary-general of the International Mould and Metals and Plastics Industry Suppliers Association, the proportion of plastic weight in automobiles is currently close to 10%. On average, the average amount of plastic for each vehicle exceeds 100 kg in Europe, the United States and Japan, and about 80 kg in developing countries. With the development trend of “plastic-steel substitute steel” being increasingly recognized by the industry, the use of plastics to manufacture automobile core components has been infinitely close to industrialization, and all-plastic concept vehicles have emerged in recent years.

If the hub, chassis, and even the engine casing are all replaced with plastics, is there really no problem? Ultra-high-strength polyamide resins are far from being comparable to steel. Under the same conditions, the density of plastics is much lower than that of steel, which means that plastic-replaced steel can improve the performance while reducing the weight of the goods.

Plastics have not yet completely broken through the metal's line of defense, not a performance defect, but because of the high cost of high-strength plastics. For example, the weight requirements of aircraft are more demanding, and the cost pressure of the aircraft manufacturing industry is relatively small. Therefore, the weight of plastic in modern aircraft has reached 40%, and the Boeing 787 has even raised this figure to 50%, far exceeding Automotive industry.

Corresponding to the concept of “plastic substitute steel”, “plastic substitute wood” is also an important direction for the rapid development of plastics. The main base areas are the construction, home improvement and furniture industries. In a broad sense, the concept of "using plastic to substitute wood" should also include "using plastic to replace leather", that is, using artificial synthetic plastic to replace some traditional biological materials. Unlike “plastic-steel”, plastics are not mainly chasing performance improvements here, but rather the so-called “texture” enjoyment. Rosewood and leather are the symbols of taste. However, in real life, these materials are very scarce, and it is still plastic that can match them. Taking the floor as an example, the price per square meter of solid wood flooring is usually between 150-300 yuan, while that of PVC (6355, 40.00, 0.63%) is 40-120 yuan. PVC is a material that is famous for its plasticizers. It looks risky, but it is much safer than the formaldehyde produced by a fake solid wood floor. Under modern industrial conditions, PU leatherettes are more delicate and softer than leather. Polyester was not as airtight as it was in the Dacron era, and acrylics that sparkled like bright stones were mere transliterations of polyacrylic resins. They were essentially plastic.

As a consumer product for daily use, whether the mobile phone is used smoothly is actually to solve the use and aesthetic aspects, or "performance" and "texture." The metal apple product was once the best example to explain the perfect combination of the two, but the rapid development of plastics is constantly dominating this position. Nokia's plastic shell does not affect its most resistant word of mouth, and Samsung's plastic shell does not affect its beauty. According to analysis, the cost of the iPhone5C plastic case is lower than the iPhone5S's metal case by $42, but the $42 is really not a high-end and low-cost gap. Perhaps, iPhone5C is just a powerful Apple company's helpless compromise on the material industry, because it will be abandoned if not accepted.