What Is Plastic Expert Group and What Does It Do?

Plastic Expert Group is a forensic engineering and consulting firm that investigates why plastic and polymer components fail, delivers court-ready root-cause findings, and advises product teams on preventing those failures. It serves insurers, reinsurers, subrogation counsel, attorneys, and manufacturers. If you need a failure explained for a claim, a lawsuit, or a design decision, this is the type of firm you would engage; if you are looking to buy plastic materials or products, it is not — the company states it does not sell materials or products.

Core services

The firm organizes its work into four service lines:

• Forensic failure analysis — determining what failed and why, using laboratory testing.
• Expert witness — providing testimony and litigation support based on those findings.
• Insurance & subrogation — supporting carriers and subrogation counsel in loss investigations.
• Design & materials consulting — helping manufacturers engineer failure out before it happens.

Its stated purpose is to "prove why plastics fail, predict how they will fail, and prescribe the fixes that prevent loss."

Who it works with

The intake form lists the roles the firm expects to hear from, which maps closely to its client base:

Failure categories it handles

The site groups the losses it resolves by component type and industry, including:

• CPVC fire sprinkler failure
• PEX plumbing failure
• Other pipe and water-loss failures
• Data center and mission-critical piping
• Medical device failure
• Consumer product and equipment failure
• Automotive plastic failure
• Plastic molding and part defects
• Construction and building defects

The framing is consistent across all of them: what failed, why, and who is responsible.

How engagements start

The entry point is a Request an Expert Review. According to the site:

• The initial assessment is no-cost with no upfront commitment.
• Requests are for consulting, testing, legal, or expert-witness work only.
• The stated response time is one business day, and inquiries are treated as confidential.
• A direct phone line is listed: +1 (989) 281-4465.

The request form asks for contact details, your role, a topic, and a brief description of the problem — enough for the team to route the matter.

Credentials and scale

Figures published on the site:

• 2,000+ client matters and 580+ litigation-related projects
• 70+ experts, with 20+ years in practice
• Teams in the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific
• Staff backgrounds from Dow Chemical, DuPont, Bayer/Covestro, 3M, General Motors, and IBM
• Testing conducted through an independent, accredited affiliate-lab network
• Featured on CBS 60 Minutes, including an interview with cofounder and CEO Dr. Duane Priddy Sr.
• Founder of a plastics technical community on LinkedIn with 58,000+ members across five groups since 2008

When to contact them — and when not to

Reasonable fit if you need an independent, defensible determination of why a polymer part or system failed, whether for an insurance claim, subrogation matter, litigation, or an internal design review. The combination of lab testing and expert testimony is aimed at matters that may end up in court.

Not a fit if you want to purchase plastic materials, products, or components — the company explicitly states it does not sell them. Pricing for services is not published; the site only indicates that the initial assessment carries no cost, so any fee structure would need to be confirmed directly with the firm.