What is polycarbonate (PC) and its properties?
Polycarbonate (PC) is a non-crystalline thermoplastic plastic, which is a type of polymer compound with a carbonate structure (-O-(C = O)-O-) in the molecular chain and various types of products made based on its generic term for materials. According to the different ester groups in the molecular structure, it can be divided into several categories:aliphatic, cycloaliphatic, aromatic, and aliphatic-aromatic. It has particularly good impact-resistant, long-lasting, thermal stability, clear, and flame-retardant properties.
PC material has good mechanical properties but poor flow characteristics, making it difficult to 3D print and form. If the plastic parts require high impact resistance, then use a low flow rate PC material; on the contrary, you can use a high flow rate PC material, which can optimize the printing or injection molding process.
What are the industrial uses of PC plastic?
Machinery components for the parts with little workload, such as gears, racks, cams, worms, screws, nuts, pipe fittings, impellers, valve parts, camera equipment parts, and watches.
Electronic components are suitable for electrical appliances such as meters, computers, hair dryers, lamps, and controllers. Due to its advantages of high transparency and lightness, it can be used to make CDs, DVDs, mobile phones, and laptops.
Automotive components gasoline pump dials, car dashboards, car lighting systems, dashboard systems and interior decoration systems, car front and rear baffles, mirror frames, spoilers, etc. Medical components: blood specimen appliances, blood oxygenators, surgical instruments, kidney dialyzers, etc.
How strong is polycarbonate?
More and more products on the market use PC plastic to replace other plastic materials, even metal and glass products with their unique characters. The manufacturing cost is lower than others, and it is easy to form and mold. Besides, the PC products provide good machinery performance, excellently high strength, and excellent impact resistance.
Polycarbonate is very strong and can replace glass products, making it suitable for applications requiring high safety performance. Such as safety glass, explosion-proof glass, skylights and domes, protective screens, and greenhouse glass. Polycarbonate is 30 times stronger than other popular transparent acrylic plastics and 200 times stronger than glass.
Is PC plastic toxic? Is PC BPA-free?
PC plastics have toxicity under certain recommendations, but it is much lower than many other engineering plastics, and it is easy to recycle, which increases its environmental friendliness.
Generally, PC plastics contain bisphenol A (BPA), a toxic substance that will be released at high temperatures and through long-term contact. This type of PC plastic may be dangerous when in contact with food. However, polycarbonate without BPA is non-toxic and is particularly suitable for food containers and mineral water bottles. In general, the information on PC plastic products will indicate "PCP-free" PC plastic.
Is PC plastic recyclable?
Today, the recycling of plastics has been a hot topic of public concern. People have realized the importance of plastic recycling to reduce environmental damage, and some environmentalists have started their daily lives without plastic, reducing their dependence on plastic products. So no matter what kind of plastic, its recyclability is very important.
There are three main advantages to recycling polycarbonate waste:
✔ The recycling of polycarbonate has economic value and can be produced repeatedly, achieving the advantage of cost savings.
✔ PC recycling can reduce the demand for raw materials for the production of PC plastics.
✔ Recycling is conducive to protecting the environment and improving the environmental friendliness of plastics.
What are the conditions of injection molding for PC material?
Drying conditions: 100 ~ 120 °C, at least 4 hours. Ordinary PC plastic material is extremely sensitive to water, so it must be fully dried before injection molding to reduce its water content to less than 0.02%.
Injection temperature: 270~320℃
Mold temperature: 70-120.
Injection pressure: 70-140 MPa.
Injection speed: medium or slow.
Screw speed and back pressure: It is better to control it at 30-60 r/min, and it is better to control the back pressure at 10-15% of the injection pressure.