On the natural selection of high performance polymers

Abstract

The high performance polymer market can be a fickle one for manufacturers, subservient to the whims of the end user. The materials often serve narrow, exotic markets and are thus produced in significantly smaller quantities than their higher tonnage, commodity cousins. Often, these more expensive, thoroughbred materials tend to be acquired and divested more readily than more humble products that constitute the core business. For example, a cursory glance at the development of cyanate ester monomers, first reported in the 1960s by Bayer AG, shows that the business changed hands on no fewer than seven occasions during the intervening forty years. In this reflective essay, the development of a carefully selected group of high performance polymers is contrasted in order to identify the key elements that contribute to the success (or failure) of a product.