Lexan Polycarbonate Sheeting offering light weight and break resistance
Polycarbonate products offer a balance of useful features this includes high temperature resistance, impact resistance and optical properties position polycarbonates between commodity plastics and engineering materials.
Polycarbonate is a very long-lasting material. Although it has high impact-resistance, it possesses a lower scratch-resistance and thus a hard coating is applied to polycarbonate eyewear lenses as well as polycarbonate exterior auto components. The properties relating to polycarbonate tend to be similar to that of those of common Acrylic materials, except polycarbonate is always 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 it has better light transmission characteristics than several types of glass.
Polycarbonate carries a glass transition temperature of about 150 °C (302 °F), consequently it softens gradually above this point and flows above about 300°C (572 °F). Tools should be held at warm to high temperatures, generally above 80 °C (176 °F) to help make strain- and stress-free products.
Unlike most thermoplastics, polycarbonate can undergo large deformations without cracking or breaking. Because of that, it could be processed and formed cold using sheet metal techniques, for instance forming bends with a brake. Even for sharp angle bends having a tight radius, no heating is usually necessary. This makes it useful for prototyping applications where transparent or electrically non-conductive parts are important, which can not be crafted from sheet metal. Be aware that PMMA/Plexiglas, which is similar in looks to polycarbonate, but it's brittle and can't be bent at room temperature.
The light weight of polycarbonate, as opposed to glass, has led to growth and development of electronic view screens that replace glass materials 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 generally still require glass for its higher melting temperature and the ability to be etched with finer detail.
Other types of items produced from Polycarbonate include durable, lightweight luggage, MP3/digital audio player cases, computer cases, police riot shields, instrument panels, and common style blender jars. Many toys and hobby goods are produced from polycarbonate parts, e.g. fins, gyro mounts, and flybar locks for use with radio-controlled helicopters.
For use in applications exposed 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 plastic material in the form of small pellets. In a manufacturing process called injection molding, these small pellets are heated until they melt in to a thick liquid. The melted liquid polycarbonate is then rapidly injected into a mold with the empty part being the size and shape of the part you want, compressed under high pressure and cooled to form a finished product in less than a minute.
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