Sheffield Plastics Polycarbonate Sheets are clear and tough

Polycarbonate products give you a great blend of beneficial features including temp resistance, impact resistance and optical properties position polycarbonates between commodity plastic materials and engineering plastic materials.
Polycarbonate is a very high quality material. Even though it features higher impact-resistance, it has got reduced scratch-resistance and thus a hard coating may be applied to polycarbonate eyeglasses lenses as well as polycarbonate exterior vehicle equipment. The properties of polycarbonate are comparable to those of common Acrylic materials, and yet polycarbonate is undoubtedly 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 most grades of glass.
Polycarbonate has a glass transition temperature of about 150 °C (302 °F), as a result it softens gradually 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) for making strain- and reduced stress products.
Unlike most other thermoplastics, polycarbonate can undergo massive changes in basic shape without breaking or cracking. For this reason, it may be processed and formed   without needing to be heated using standard sheet metal techniques, which include forming bends with a brake. Even for sharp angle bends having a tight radius, no heating is generally necessary. This makes it attractive prototyping applications where transparent or electrically non-conductive parts are necessary, which should not be crafted from sheet metal. Note that PMMA/Plexiglas, which is similar in appearance to polycarbonate, but it is brittle and cannot be bent with out a heating process.

The light weight of polycarbonate, unlike glass, has led to continuing development of electronic view screens that replace glass materials 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 which still do require glass for its higher melting temperature and the ability to be etched with finer detail.
Other kinds of items made out of 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 products are made out of 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 is needed. This can be a coating (e.g. for improved abrasion resistance), or perhaps the 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, these small pellets are heated until they begin to melt. This liquid polycarbonate is then rapidly injected into molds, compressed under high pressure and cooled to create a finished product , all in just a minute or so.

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