Polymer Engineering is a branch of engineering that examines the production methods as well as chemical and physical properties of plastics and rubbers, and investigates the relationship between chemical structures and mechanical properties, makes design, production, development, processing and application areas of these materials.
During undergraduate education, a polymer engineer first takes chemistry-based courses such as general chemistry, organic chemistry, physicochemistry, and engineering courses such as fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, and thermodynamics, as similar to chemical engineering curriculum. Then, they take lessons about the synthesis of general and special purpose polymer, the development of special-purpose composites, machine elements, plastic extrusion and injection systems, press machines, rotational molding machines, vacuum forming machines, melting furnaces, automation and control systems, computer-aided design programs (CAD / CAM), mechanical (tensile, compression, impact, hardness measurement, DMA, etc.) and thermal test equipment (DSC, HDT, VICAT, TGA, etc.).
With these properties, polymer engineering cannot be defined as a sub-branch of chemical engineering, but as a hybrid engineering specialized for the plastics/rubber industry, which includes specific topics in chemical, mechanical and material engineering.