Elsevier Introduces Comprehensive Database Detailing the Degradation of Plastics and Elastomers

NEW YORK, June 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

New Chemical Resistance Database available via Knovel

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today introduced its Chemical Resistance Database: Plastics and Elastomers. Available via Knovel, the database is the industry's largest compilation of normalized data detailing the degradation of plastics and elastomers exposed to a variety of environments and elements.  Characterizing the effect of thousands of reagents, the environment and other exposure media, the new database enables organizations to make well-informed decisions quickly-selecting the best plastics and elastomers for a wide range of new product and process design and manufacturing settings across specialty chemical, engineering, design and construction and other industries.

The normalized data is discoverable via Knovel's engineering search capabilities, and users also have the ability to search for materials and substances properties data. The database includes information about both commercially available and "retired" plastics carefully curated from various sources, including commercial catalogs, journal articles, technical reports and materials information datasheets.

The Chemical Resistance Database: Plastics and Elastomers offers:

• more than 183,000 unique records organized by material category
• more than 1,100 material grades representing 226 families, consisting of neat and reinforced and/or filled thermoplastics, thermoset resins, rubbers, and thermoplastic elastomers
• resistance data for nearly 5,000 exposure media, including more than 2,800 chemical substances (from water to acetone to sulfuric acid)
• details about conditions, such as those that exist during weathering, sterilization, aging and environmental stress cracking.

"Engineers spend too much time manually tracking down and verifying materials and related information from supplies and other sources," said Meagan Cooke, Elsevier's Senior Director, Product Management - Knovel. "This lengthens the design time and hampers an organization's ability to make fast and well-informed decisions. With the Chemical Resistance Database available via Knovel, engineers will have access to the largest compilation of normalized data on plastics and elastomers in the industry."

This new database offers benefits for engineering teams, including saving time and increasing efficiency in the early material selection stage, reducing costs of maintenance and improving component performance. It has wide-ranging applications across industries, allowing engineers to easily select new materials for existing design or components, develop new materials such as engineering plastics for new product applications, reformulate existing material grades with new additives and/or fillers to improve their performance, or understand how specific plastic materials for building materials such as roofing membranes will stand up to harsh environments over time.

About Knovel 

Knovel is an engineering decision-support solution enabling engineers to confidently answer technical questions drawing upon trusted data from more than 120 providers through a cloud-based platform with powerful search and interactive analytical tools. For more information on the availability of the Chemical Resistance Database: Plastics and Elastomers,please contact Knovel's customer support team online or call +1 (866) 240 8174.

About Elsevier 

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals, empowering them to make better decisions, deliver better care, and sometimes make groundbreaking discoveries that advance the boundaries of knowledge and human progress. Elsevier provides web-based, digital solutions - among them ScienceDirect, Scopus, Elsevier Research Intelligence and ClinicalKey - and publishes nearly 2,200 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and over 33,000 book titles, including a number of iconic reference works. Elsevier is part of RELX Group plc, a world-leading provider of information solutions for professional customers across industries.

Media Contact
Amy Burnis
Director, Marketing & Communications
Elsevier
+1-617-803-8344
a.burnis@elsevier.com