Polymer Materials

Polymeric materials are synthesis materials which, since the last century, have greatly changed the world we live in and without which today the world would not be as we know it. Industry, indeed, uses polymers to create plastic materials and synthetic rubber, but also to produce fibres, adhesives and glues, varnishes and paints. The Polymer Materials Section is made up of three areas, dedicated respectively to rubber, plastic materials and adhesives. It analyses the history and technological evolution of each material, the chemical, physical and technological properties, the processing techniques, the fascination and impact on our daily life, the possibility of recycling products.

The collection shows instruments, machines and techniques used to extract natural rubber, to create synthetic rubber and thermoplastic elastomers. It tells us how to process materials, manufacture objects and possibly recycle them. The display invites you to follow some widely consumed or industrially used products, ranging from their raw material state to the finished object, to discover what a tyre, a shoe sole, a chewing gum, a tarred road and many other objects have in common. The display is completed with a timeline which follows the history of the polymeric materials, a polymertheque where you can touch different materials and an area dedicated to the destiny of rubber objects.

The collection allows to discover where plastic materials come from, how they are processed and what uses are made of them. The exhibition is dedicated to the places where plastic materials are created, processed and produced: "the idea laboratory", "the object factory" and "a world of plastic". A journey towards the most modern plastic materials thanks to the revolutionary discovery (1954) of isotactic polypropylene by Giulio Natta, Chemistry Nobel Prize. A timeline in which you can follow the history of polymeric materials, a "Polymertheque" where you can touch different materials and an area dedicated to the destiny of plastic objects complete the exhibition.

The area introduces the vast and often surprising world of those substances that allow two surfaces to remain stick together and new materials to be developed. An overall view to discover present, past and future of the substances which hold together houses, boats, aeroplanes, and almost all of that which surrounds us. The area shows three case studies which recall different epochs: the materials which hold together a house, those which allow to create composite materials, those used in high technology applications.