Abstract
Unsaturated polyester resin has 27 years history in Japan. The total production in 1979 was 200,000 metric tons and third biggest production in thermosetting resins following to Phenolic and Urea resins.
More than 75% of consumption is for FRP, in which market of 1979 35% is residential housing, 25% is marine, 11% is tank & vessel, 8 % is construction and appliances.
Owing to the skyrocketing prices of major raw materials, industries of FRP are compelled to make much more efforts than ever to find the advantages of total cost performance and of typical characteristics against competitive materials.
In these economical and industrial situations for FRP, we describe recent technical progresses and developments on unsaturated polyester resins, molding compounds, molding methods, and applications primarily for FRP.
