Book excerpt: A comprehensive collection of professionally validated comparative data, on the most widely used plastics materials. The Plastics Compendium covers thermoplastics, thermosets, composites and thermoplastic elastomers. Volume 1 of The Plastics Compendium contains clearly presented data on 351 generic and modified material types, in the following main sections property and commercial data sheets, an alphabetical trade name index, a listing of suppliers' (or their agents'), and a detailed alphabetical index to the materials for which data are listed.