Covestro Makrolon Polycarbonate Sheets offering light weight and break resistance
Polycarbonate products offer a great blend of helpful features including temp resistance, impact resistance and optical properties position polycarbonates between commodity plastic materials and engineering plastic materials.
Polycarbonate is definitely a sturdy material. Although it has greater impact-resistance, it has reduced scratch-resistance and so a hard coating typically is applied to polycarbonate eye protection lenses and polycarbonate exterior automotive equipment. The properties relating to polycarbonate are similar to that of those of common Acrylic materials, except polycarbonate is going to be stronger, it is usable in a wider temperature range and is a bit more expensive. This plastic polymer is highly transparent to visible light and has better light transmission characteristics than many kinds of glass.
Polycarbonate carries a glass transition temperature of around 150 °C (302 °F), as a result it softens slowly above this point and flows above about 300°C (572 °F). Tools are required to be held at higher temperatures, generally above 80 °C (176 °F) for making strain- and reduced stress products.
Unlike almost all other thermoplastics, polycarbonate can undergo large changes in basic shape without breaking. Therefore, it is sometimes processed and formed at room temperature using sheet metal techniques, for instance forming bends on a brake. Even for sharp angle bends with a tight radius, no heating is generally necessary. This makes it valuable in prototyping applications where transparent or electrically non-conductive parts are important, which can't be created from sheet metal. Keep in mind that PMMA/Plexiglas, which happens to be similar in looks to polycarbonate, but it is brittle and cannot be bent with out a heating process.
The light weight of polycarbonate, compared with glass, has led to advancement of electronic view screens that replace the traditional glass with polycarbonate, for use in mobile and portable devices. Such displays include newer e-ink and some LCD screens, though CRT, plasma screen and other LCD technologies still generally require glass for its higher melting temperature and its ability to be etched in finer detail.
Other types of items produced from Polycarbonate include durable, lightweight luggage, MP3/digital audio player cases, computer cases, riot shields, instrument panels, and blender jars. Many toys and hobby items are made of polycarbonate parts, e.g. fins, gyro mounts, and flybar locks for use with radio-controlled helicopters.
For use in applications subjected to weathering or UV-radiation, a special surface treatment maybe needed. This either can be a coating (e.g. for improved abrasion resistance), or as a coextrusion for enhanced weathering resistance.
The Makrolon Polycarbonate is a thermoplastic that at the beginning, starts as a solid material in the form of small pellets. In a manufacturing process called injection molding, this pellet material is heated until they melt and become a very thick liquid. This liquid polycarbonate is then rapidly pushed into a mold, compressed under high pressure and cooled to create a finished product in less than a minute.
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