Special Kind of Plastic

Scott Clear

Scott Clear, vice president of product development for DD Studio in Carlsbad, California, is well-versed in materials and manufacturing processes with more than 25 years experience developing thousands of products spanning the medical, automotive, military and consumer markets.

On receiving samples of Eastman Tritan™ copolyester, he set out to determine if the material could meet his client’s requirement of being tough enough to throw against a cement wall without breaking. “We told everybody, ‘Just forget everything you learned about plastics and see what this thing wants to be,’” Clear says. “We did everything we could to try to break it.”

Not only did Clear find that Tritan™ is plenty tough, he learned that when you put together pieces of the material, they stick like glue. “The stiction on this is amazing. It’s probably the most superior stiction I’ve ever seen in a material,” he adds.

Clear sums up Tritan™ this way: “It's going to give design and engineering a whole new world of opportunities.”