Polycarbonate materials give you a balance of helpful features including temperature resistance, impact resistance and optical properties position polycarbonates in between commodity plastic materials and engineering plastics.
Polycarbonate is a very high quality material. Though it offers greater impact-resistance, it has got low scratch-resistance and so a hard coating could be applied to polycarbonate eyewear as well as polycarbonate exterior auto components. The properties of polycarbonate are generally along the lines of those of Acrylic PMMA materials, although polycarbonate is actually 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 most grades of glass.
Polycarbonate has a glass transition temperature of around 150 °C (302 °F), so it softens slowly 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 almost stress free products.
Unlike many thermoplastics, polycarbonate can undergo dramatic deformations without breaking. Subsequently, it may be processed and formed cold using sheet metal techniques, for example forming bends with a brake. Even for sharp angle bends with a tight radius, no heating is usually necessary. This makes it attractive prototyping applications where transparent or electrically non-conductive parts are essential, which may not be created from sheet metal. Note that PMMA/Plexiglas, which happens to be similar in appearance to polycarbonate, but it is brittle and can't be bent unless it is heated.
The light weight of polycarbonate, compared with glass, has led to continuing development of electronic touch screens that replace glass with polycarbonate, for use in mobile and portable devices. Such displays include newer e-ink and a few 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 in finer detail.
Other miscellaneous items created from Polycarbonate include durable, lightweight luggage, MP3/digital audio player cases, computer cases, riot shields, instrument panels, and blender jars. Many toys and hobby goods are constructed 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 could be 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 begin to melt. The liquid polycarbonate is then rapidly pushed into molds, compressed under high pressure and cooled to create a finished product , all in just a minute or so.
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