Bayer Makrolon Polycarbonate Sheet offering light weight and break resistance

Polycarbonate materials give you a unique balance of beneficial features which include temperature resistance, impact resistance and optical properties position polycarbonates in between commodity plastic materials and engineering materials.
Polycarbonate is a very sturdy material. Whilst it offers high impact-resistance, it has reduced scratch-resistance and thus a hard coating typically is applied to polycarbonate eyewear as well as polycarbonate exterior auto components. The properties relating to polycarbonate are generally similar to that of those of Acrylic PMMA materials, but polycarbonate is 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 approximately 150 °C (302 °F), therefore it softens slowly above this point and flows above about 300°C (572 °F). Tools are required to be held at warm to high temperatures, generally above 80 °C (176 °F) to produce strain- and reduced stress products.
Unlike many thermoplastics, polycarbonate can undergo massive changes in basic shape without cracking. For this reason, it can be processed and formed   at room temperature 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 necessary, which cannot be crafted from sheet metal. Understand that PMMA/Plexiglas, which is similar in appearance to polycarbonate, but it is brittle and cannot be bent unless it is heated.

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 as well as 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 kinds of items produced from Polycarbonate include durable, lightweight luggage, MP3/digital audio player cases, computer cases, riot shields, instrument panels, and common style blender jars. Many toys and hobby goods are manufactured from 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 can be a coating (e.g. for improved abrasion resistance), or perhaps the coextrusion for enhanced weathering resistance.
Bayer 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, the pelletized resin is heated until they melt. This liquid polycarbonate is then rapidly pushed 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 , that only takes about a minute to complete.

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