ABS POLYMERSHistory Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene has been available since the 1940̢۪s and while its increased toughness over styrene made it suitable for many applications, its limitations led to the introduction of a rubber (butadiene) as a third monomer and hence was born the range of materials popularly referred to as ABS plastics. These became available in the 1950̢۪s and the variability of these copolymers and ease of processing has led to ABS becoming the most popular of the engineering polymers.