I need to know how important plastics are to computers. If someone could provide me with information on what parts of a computer use plastic, that would be great. I know the wires are insulated in a type of plastic and various parts are plastic but, would a computer be able to function without plastic? If not, are there alternatives that could be used? And, if so, what is a different example of a basic technology (ie engineering plastics) that is actually crucial for a computer to function? Other than electricity obviously
Well... I'd say that most computer parts have plastics. The Printed Circuit Boards are made WITH some kind of plastic (Polyester Fibre) and also there are cables, wires, capacitors, conductors, jumpers, and a lot of other internal stuff that are made from plastic. I'd say that its main dutie is to insulate the electricity and prevent short-circuits. Without plastic protection, all the components would be unprotected and short-circuits would happen very often. Not to mention the casing. If you look at your monitor, you'll see that its case is made from plastic. Your speakers too. So your computer case (it probably has a plastic front). So your mobile phone is (yes, a mobile phone these days are computers - they have RAM, CPU and video cards). Your iPod... Your digital watch... Everything's got plastic. It's non-conductive and also much lighter than most metals (specially the cheap ones such as iron and aluminium). To answer your question, a computer would work without plastic. But it would cost a fortune to replace it by other non-conductive material. We could use glass for instance, but can you imagine having a glass-keyboard and a glass mouse? Or a wooden mouse? That would be quite weird. And an iron monitor and computer case? You'd have to build a concrete structure in your living room to support a ton of metal, wood and glass. Also, injection molding is much cheaper than machine pressing. And much easier to handle. And much smaller. And lighter.
