Thermosets provide hardness, strength at high temperatures, insolubility, good heat and chemical resistance as well as the resistance to creep. But thermosets are usually brittle when highly crosslinked. Therefore the properties have to be balanced for each application. The conference has shown this potential, especially how to reach good toughness without losing performance.
The demands for processing of thermosetting resins can be very different, depending on the respective application, e.g. as adhesive, casting resins, foams, binders and prepregs, infusion or pultrusion resins. New processing techniques like microwave curing have been introduced as well as concepts concerning recycling and repair.
This whole spectrum of topics concerning thermosets was presented during the conference Thermosets 2011 that took place in September 2011 in Berlin, Germany.